KMS Graf Zeppelin
In 1935, Germany's first aircraft carrier was ordered, and she was launched as the Graf Zeppelin in December 1938. She was to provide the commerce-raiding capital ships and cruisers with air cover, and would have increased their potential for destruction considerably. A second ship, provisionally to be called KMS Peter Strasser after World War I head of the naval airship squadrons, was ordered the following year, but she was canceled in 1940 to release shipyard capacity for more urgent work.
Unfortunately the Germans overreached themselves. They had no experience of all the problems which had beset the early American, British and Japanese carriers despite of intense research done by scientists and engineers in smaller scales using modified merchantmen. But worst of all, the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring refused to allow his "empire" to be encroached upon, having said anything that flied in Germany belonged to him, by permitting the formation of a separate naval air force; even though the short-landing Fi 156, the clipped-winged Junkers Ju 87C and Messerschmitt Me 109T were ready. The result was that the Navy had to try to persuade the Luftwaffe to part with a small number of aircraft, and the wrangling went on until there was no hope of getting a carrier to sea.
Although the Graf Zeppelin had some advanced features she displayed her designers' lack of experience. The heavy surface armament was of little use and accounted for too much weight; the anti-aircraft armament was heavy but badly sited, all on the starboard side; the radius of action was low for a fleet carrier intended to operate with the capital ships on the Atlantic shipping routes.
The wrangles over aircraft were matched by arguments over the equipment of the ship, and construction was suspended in 1940. Work started on a revised design in 1942 but was stopped in 1943. The catapults were fitted partly on the flight deck when construction was ceased but they were never completed and eventually destroyed by a special German crew on 25 April 1945 when the hull was scuttled at Stettin. The ship was reported to be listing to the starboard with heel about 0.5 degree after scuttling. After Germany's surrender the Russians raised it. Loaded with booty and with her hangars full of sections of U-boats and other bulky items, she left Stettin in tow for Leningrad in August 1947. Afterwards, she was renamed by the Russians as "PO-101" (this designation means F(loating) B(ase) No. 101). The ship was further towed to the naval polygon off Swinemünde to be anchored as a training target for Russian dive-bombers and torpedo vessels. The tests began on 16 August 1947, and the Soviets installed aerial bombs on the flight deck, in hangars and even inside the funnel; in addition to bombs dropped from aircraft and two 533-mm torpedoe-hits. In total the carrier withstood 24 hits scored by the Russians before finally sinking to the bottom: two 1000kg, two 500kg, three 250kg and five 100kg aerial bombs; four 180mm shells weighing 92kg; six bombs dropped by fleet dive-bombers; and two 533mm torpedoe-hits.
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/2833/ ... pelin.html
Type: aircraft carrier
Displacement, standard: 19,250 tons
Displacement, full load: 28,100 tons
Length, overall: 246.96m
Beam: 26.97m
Draught (mean): 5.59m
Flight deck: 240.75 x 26.97m
Complement: 1,760 + air crew
Machinery speed: steam geared turbines 200,000shp (149,260kw) to four shafts
Speed: 32 knots
Class: Graf Zeppelin (1936), Peter Strasser (1936)
Armament: sixteen 5.9-inch (4x2, 8x1), twelve 4.1-inch anti-aircraft, twenty-two 37mm anti-aircraft, twenty-eight 20mm aircraft
Armor: belt: up to 9cm, deck : up to 3.8cm, flight deck: up to 1.9cm, casemates for 5.9-inch guns. Initial design did not include bulges. But when construction was revised in 1942, she was equipped with bulges at Kiel during winter 1942-43. The bulges proved their effectiveness when she received her first torpedo hit during the tests by the Soviets. The bulges were completely destroyed, but the armor belt remained intact. Sides appear to be armored for two-thirds of length amidships, and to a lesser extent as far as bow, which is of bulbous form. Will have island superstructure on starboard side
Aircraft: 40: 18 Ju 87C, 22 sea-version Me 109T
Development: One of the two aircraft carriers was photographed from the air, fitting out alongside a quay in the Naval Dockyard at Kiel, in July 1940, whence she is believed to have proceeded to Gdynia. Peter Strasser does not appear to have been completed.
[img]Type: aircraft carrier
Displacement, standard: 19,250 tons
Displacement, full load: 28,100 tons
Length, overall: 246.96m
Beam: 26.97m
Draught (mean): 5.59m
Flight deck: 240.75 x 26.97m
Complement: 1,760 + air crew
Machinery speed: steam geared turbines 200,000shp (149,260kw) to four shafts
Speed: 32 knots
Class: Graf Zeppelin (1936), Peter Strasser (1936)
Armament: sixteen 5.9-inch (4x2, 8x1), twelve 4.1-inch anti-aircraft, twenty-two 37mm anti-aircraft, twenty-eight 20mm aircraft
Armor: belt: up to 9cm, deck : up to 3.8cm, flight deck: up to 1.9cm, casemates for 5.9-inch guns. Initial design did not include bulges. But when construction was revised in 1942, she was equipped with bulges at Kiel during winter 1942-43. The bulges proved their effectiveness when she received her first torpedo hit during the tests by the Soviets. The bulges were completely destroyed, but the armor belt remained intact. Sides appear to be armored for two-thirds of length amidships, and to a lesser extent as far as bow, which is of bulbous form. Will have island superstructure on starboard side
Aircraft: 40: 18 Ju 87C, 22 sea-version Me 109T
Development: One of the two aircraft carriers was photographed from the air, fitting out alongside a quay in the Naval Dockyard at Kiel, in July 1940, whence she is believed to have proceeded to Gdynia. Peter Strasser does not appear to have been completed.
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