Warships of Germany: Kriegsmarine Aircraft Carrier Graf Zeppelin
Aircraft Carrier, Graf Zeppelin-class
Graf Zeppelin, Laid down 1936, commissioned 1938 (85% complete at the beginning of the war, never completed)
Flugzeugträger B, Laid Down 1938, never launched, broken up 1940.
Projected recognition drawing of Graf Zeppelin had she been completed in September 1942.
The Graf Zeppelin represented part of the Kriegsmarine's attempt to create a well-balanced oceangoing fleet, capable of projecting German naval power far beyond the narrow confines of the Baltic and North Seas. The carrier would have had a complement of 42 fighters and dive bombers.
Construction on Graf Zeppelin began on 28 December 1936, when her keel was laid down at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel. Named in honour of Graf (Count) Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the ship was launched on 8 December 1938, and was 85% complete by the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. Graf Zeppelin was not completed and was never operational due to shifting construction priorities necessitated by the war. She remained in the Baltic for the duration of the war; with Germany's defeat imminent, the ship's custodian crew scuttled her just outside Stettin in March 1945. The Soviet Union raised the ship in March 1946, and she was ultimately sunk in weapons tests north of Poland 17 months later. The wreck was discovered by a Polish survey ship in July 2006. (Wikipedia)
Graf Zeppelin was 262.5 meters (861.2 ft) long overall; she had a beam of 36.2 m (118.8 ft) and a maximum draft of 8.5 m (27.9 ft). At full combat load, she would have displaced 33,550 long tons (34,088.4 t). The ship's propulsion system consisted of four Brown, Boveri & Cie geared turbines with sixteen oil-fired, ultra-high-pressure LaMont boilers. The power plant was rated at 200,000 shaft horsepower (49,140.0 kW) and a top speed of 33.8 knots (62.6 km/h; 38.9 mph). Graf Zeppelin had a projected cruising radius of 8,000 nautical miles (14,816.0 km; 9,206.2 mi) at a speed of 19 kn (35.2 km/h; 21.9 mph). She would have had a crew of 1760 officers and enlisted men, plus flight crews.
(Kriegsmarine Photo)
Fieseler Fi 167 torpedo bomber.
The ship's primary offensive power would have been its aircraft complement. Graf Zeppelin would have carried 42 aircraft as designed: 12 navalized Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers, 10 Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, and 20 Fieseler Fi 167 torpedo bombers. Later during the construction process, the aerial complement was reworked to consist of thirty Ju 87s and twelve Bf 109s, and the Fi 167s were removed altogether. As designed, Graf Zeppelin was to be fitted with eight 15-cm SK C/28 guns for defence against surface warships. This number was later increased to sixteen. Her anti-aircraft battery consisted of ten 10.5-cm SK C/33 guns, later increased to twelve, twenty-two 3.7-cm SK C/30 guns, and twenty-eight 2-cm guns. The ship's flight deck was protected with up to 45 millimeters (1.8 in) of Wotan Weich steel armour. A 60-mm (2.4-inch) thick armoured deck was located under the deck to protect the ship's vitals from aerial attacks. Graf Zeppelin had a waterline armour belt that was 100-mm (3.9-inch) thick in the central area of the ship.
(Bundesarchiv, RM 25 Bild-62 / CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Graf Zeppelin under construction at Kiel, 21 June 1940.
(US Navy Photo, NH 78307)
The German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin photographed on 6 February 1942 at Gotenhafen (today Gdynia, Poland) by a British Royal Air Force aircraft. A three-masted sailing ship, possibly one of the German Navy's vessels (Horst Wessel (1936), Albert Leo Schlageter (1937), or Gorch Fock (1933)), appears at a nearby pier.
(USN Photo, NH 78311)
The former German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin on 5 April 1947 at Swinemünde (today ?winouj?cie, Poland) while in Soviet custody. The scuttled carrier had been refloated in March 1946 and was sunk as a target in the Baltic Sea on 16 August 1947.
(Raboe001 Photo)
Model of the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, Aeronauticum Cuxhaven, Germany.
