Divers find Hitler's aircraft carrier

timesonline ^ | 27 July 06 | Roger Boyes

[saganite]

The location of the wreck of the Graf Zeppelin had been a mystery for more than half a century

POLISH divers have discovered the rusting wreckage of Nazi Germany’s only aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, solving one of the most enduring maritime riddles of the Second World War. For more than half a century the location of the huge vessel was kept secret by the Soviet authorities. Even the opening of the Moscow archives in the 1990s failed to produce a precise bearing. The once-proud ship was simply one of dozens of wrecks that littered the bed of the Baltic Sea near the Bay of Gdansk.

“We were carrying out soundings for possible oil exploration,” Krzysztof Grabowski, of the Petrobaltic exploration group, said. “Then we stumbled across a vessel that was over 260 metres (850ft) long at a depth of 250 metres.”

Divers confirmed this week that it was the German ship, though who owns her and what — if anything — will happen to her remains unclear.

When the Graf Zeppelin was launched in 1938, Adolf Hitler raised his right arm in salute to a warship that was supposed to help Germany to become master of the northern seas. But, when fleeing German troops scuttled her in April 1945, she had never seen service — a casualty of infighting within the Nazi elite and the changing tide of war.

The Graf Zeppelin was scuttled in shallow water near Szczecin and it proved easy for the Red Army to recover her after marching into the Polish port. According to an agreement with the Allies, German and Japanese warships should have been sunk in deep water or destroyed. The Russians repaired the ship, then used her to carry looted factory equipment back to the Soviet Union. In August 1947 Allied spies observed her being towed back to the Polish Baltic coast and then used for target practice at Leba by Soviet dive bombers. It appeared that the Russians were preparing for possible action against US aircraft carriers.

The Graf Zeppelin sank a second time, and remained undetected until now.

Lukasz Orlicki, a Polish maritime historian, said: “It is difficult to say why the Russians have always been so stubbornly reluctant to talk about the location of the wreck. Perhaps it was the usual obsession with secrecy, or perhaps there was some kind of suspect cargo.”

At 262 metres, the Graf Zeppelin was comparable to the biggest of the US carriers that played such a significant role in the Pacific. She had a range of 8,000 nautical miles, meaning that she could easily have reached the North Sea.

[SAMWolf]

The Only Nazi Aircraft Carrier

In no naval action of World War 2 will you find a German aircraft carrier taking part. All the major navies in the war used them extensively, except for Nazi Germany. There were lots of German U-Boats, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, but no flattops. However, the Nazis had plans to build a total of four carriers and almost finished one of them.

Her name was the KMS Graf Zeppelin and though launched in December 1938 she was never over 80% completed. Construction delays, lack of aircraft, and bitter disputes between Air Marshall Herman Georing and the Navy insured that the ship was doomed to become scrap metal.

Hitler had promised the German Navy (The Kriegsmarine) carriers as early as 1935, and the keel was laid for the Graf Zepplin on December 26, 1936. The Graf Zeppelin was 920 feet long and weighed 19,250 tons. Her top speed was to be 33.8 knots. Her crew compliment was 1,760 and she was to hangar forty aircraft. By comparison the large American Essex class carriers of WWII could carry 80 to 100 aircraft. The Germans got as far as partly installing the catapults when the ship was then turned into a floating warehouse for u-boat parts.

Hitler's attitude vacillated on the project and it never had his full backing. It also had a major detractor in Goering, who was resentful of any incursion on his authority as head of the country's air power. Georing had been ordered by Hitler to develop aircraft for the ship. His response was to offer redesigned versions of the then-obsolete JU-87 Stuka dive bomber and older versions of the Messerschmitt 109 fighter. Both planes were land-based aircraft never intended to meet the rough requirements for carrier operations. Even after modifications they were hopelessly inferior to Allied types. To insure further delay in the carrier’s completion, Goering informed Hitler that these planes would not be ready until the end of 1944. Goering’s tactics worked and the Graf Zeppelin’s construction was halted in 1943.

By the time work stopped on the ship, the Germany Navy had a submariner as its top naval officer– Admiral Karl Donitz– and all ship construction was turned over to building new U-Boats. The Graf Zeppelin stayed at her moorings in Stettin for the rest of the war never to see action.

As the end of the war in Europe neared, the Graf Zeppelin was scuttled in shallow water off Stettin (now Szczecin in Poland) on April 25, 1945 just before the Red Army captured the city. But she wasn’t quite ready for the scrap yard yet. According to recently found material in Russian archives, the ship was refloated by the Russians and towed to Leningrad filled with captured booty and military parts for use in the Soviet Union. After unloading her cargo she was named "PO-101" (Floating Base Number 101) by the Soviets. The new owners had hoped to repair and refit the ship as a new carrier but this proved to be impractical so the Graf Zeppelin had one more task to fulfill.

On August 16, 1947 she was towed out to sea and used for target practice by Soviet ships and aircraft. Aerial bombs were placed in her hangers, flight deck and smoke stack. Planes and ships then shot shells and dropped bombs on her to demonstrate how to sink a carrier, presumably American. After twenty-four hits the Graf Zeppelin stayed afloat and had to be finished off by torpedoes.

Details on how the Nazis planned to use the carrier in action have been lost to obscurity. The Germans had none of the experience that the American, British and Japanese navies had gained in the years between the wars. While the Graf Zeppelin had some advanced features she displayed her designers' lack of knowledge about carriers. 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.

Had she been commissioned she would have provided a considerable commerce-raiding capability. The carrier could have provided effective support for capital ships and cruisers with air cover, and would have increased their potential for destruction considerably. Such support operations could have changed the outcome of sea battles like the sinking of the Battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz had the Graf Zeppelin been present.

The Germans have never sailed an aircraft carrier since.

[silent_jonny]

"That's a big sum'bitch."

[Southack]

"It was actually a very good design for an aircraft carrier."

Oh, no. It was enormously top-heavy. It had all of its anti-aircraft guns on the starboard side, too. You would not want to be on it in heavy seas or in a high speed turn (e.g. evading bombs or torpedoes).

One thing that the Germans did right with it, however, was the downward sloping runway threshold. Ski-jump styles from later aircraft carriers completely miss the aerodynamic points (you want increased speed on launch that is obtained by sloping down rather than angling up...and you want the lower, rather than higher, angle when coming in for a landing).

[COEXERJ145]

I didn't say it was perfect. I said it was a good design, especially for a nation that had never built an aircraft carrier before.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Had she been commissioned she would have provided a considerable commerce-raiding capability.

I doubt it would have ever gotten out into the open Atlantic. The Royal Navy would have been all over it. The sinking of the Bismarck changed the game, virtually requiring the Germans to focus on U-Boats.

[Michael.SF.]

All things considered, it seems that focusing on U-Boats, as a strategy by Germany, was far more effective then either aircraft carriers or battleships.

If this ship had been launched, it's lifespan probably would have been comparable to that of the Bismark.

[AlpineWest]

Awesome find.
I wonder who will get to keep all the millions in auction money?...........

[Southack]

The Germans may have "converted" an old merchant marine ship into a light aircraft carrier back then. I can't really remember. Probably flew old bi-planes if so, anyway (bi-planes can take off, and land, in very, very short distances - which is important for tiny/light carriers).

Pretty difficult to project force without aircraft carriers, though. The Germans *badly* lagged in this department, in code breaking, in computers, and in nuclear research.

[Michael.SF.]

One thing that the Germans did right

As the old joke goes:

In Heaven the Germans are the Engineers, the English are the Police and the French are the Chefs.

In Hell, the French are the Engineers, the Germans are the Police and the English are the Chefs.

[cyborg]

ping

[Michael.SF.]

GMTA, I was writing my comment as you posted yours!

[COEXERJ145]

They did convert a ship into a makeshift carrier, I'll go see if I can find the name, but it wasn't nearly as specialized like the US's Langley.

Of course if Hitler's "Plan Z" had been completed, they would have had a balanced fleet by 1944/45.

[Southack]

"All things considered, it seems that focusing on U-Boats, as a strategy by Germany, was far more effective then either aircraft carriers or battleships."

That was probably true until late 1943, when sonar and radar were so commonplace on allied surface ships and aircraft as to render U-Boats obsolete.

I'd have to look up the stats but I'm thinking offhand that by early 1944 each U-boat averaged fewer than a single sinking of an enemy ship before being lost.

[Michael.SF.]

good point.

[Robe]

As for Aircraft:
Hitler ordered Göring to produce aircraft for the carrier and under this pressure, the air marshall offered redesigned versions of the Junkers Ju 87B and the Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3, which were at that time being phased out of the Luftwaffe first-line squadrons. Raeder was unhappy, but he had to accept them or none at all (including Göring's insistence that the flying personnel would remain under Luftwaffe command). All this forced another delay in the construction of the carrier: the flight deck installations had to be changed.

From here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_aircraft_carrier_Graf_Zeppelin

[Professional Engineer]

How did I know you'd have some good data? LOL

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I'd have to look up the stats but I'm thinking offhand that by early 1944 each U-boat averaged fewer than a single sinking of an enemy ship before being lost.

I remember that the mortality rate among U-boat crews was incredibly high, around 75%, US losses by comparison were around 20%.

[SAMWolf]

KMS Europa

Displacement 44,000 tons
Armament Lots of 4.1 " DP
Some light AA

Aircraft 42
Speed 26.5 knots

The North German Lloyd Line of large, high-speed passenger liners included the 44,000-ton Europa. With the outbreak of war few Germans were going to be travelling overseas, and Germany had no use for troopships to connect her largely continental conquests, so the passenger liners sat around idle. Large ships take a lot of skilled manpower and large quantities of strategic materials to build, so when Germany tried to rectify its critical shortage of warships and, specifically, aircraft carriers, she looked to these large liners as quick conversion possibilities. Europa was designated "Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier I". Plans in early 1942 called for a carrier resembling an oversized Graf Zeppelin (Pommern drawing in my series) but having a sway-backed look from the curved liner decks below flightdeck level. The more the conversion was studied, the harder the task seemed, and stability was deemed an overwhelming obstacle despite ideas to add on concrete bulges. They gave up before any actual conversion work was attempted.

In "Grand Fleet", however, the Kriegsmarine got a much earlier start and discovered ways to rectify the more difficult aspects of the conversion. The upper decks were leveled out for hangars and workshops, and large side vents as on American carriers were included. Internal bulges were created and filled with concrete, and large Sperry gyroscopes were rigged up in the lower holds. A familiar-type island superstructure was on the starboard side, and most AA guns were sited below flight deck level. A small aircraft complement for such a large ship was the price to pay for lack of shipbuilding effort earlier. After the war started, much of the skilled labor force went towards readying the giant battleships that appealed to Hitler's sense of seapower. When the news of Graf Zeppelin's successful raid on the Panama Canal was received in Berlin it electrified Germany, and Hitler personally asked that work on the Europa be speeded up so that she could join the other German carriers in a mass raid on the US East Coast. Reluctant to squelch any enthusiasm Hitler showed for the Kriegsmarine, the Naval High Command went along with the scheme, for a while.

Ready in late 1942, Europa gave the Allies the slip and broke out into the North Atlantic during the winter and headed South to divert Allied naval resources away from the important northern convoy routes while a new U-boat offensive was in the making. Long-range Allied maritime bombers kept finding and reporting Europa's location, despite a high attrition rate from the effects of Europa's He 113T interceptors. The USS Belvedere and two cruisers were trying to run down the Europa but German Ta-152T-2S torpedo bombers put Belvedere temporarily out of action and the cruisers declined to pursue. Europa had somehow outdistanced most of the US fleet and was now heading into the Caribbean to try to valiantly duplicate Graf Zeppelin's exploits, or at least disrupt Mardi Gras by bombing New Orleans.

Europa's fate was sealed by the attrition of her limited air resources. Several attacks by USS Ranger's aircraft had left Europa's engines damaged sufficiently to limit her speed to 12 knots. A damaged and out-of-control F5U fighter plane had pancaked on the Europa's flight deck and swept the remaining German aircraft off into the sea. The Ranger, her own air complement depleted from attacks on Europa at last had her in sight and began a gunnery engagement. Gunfire poured into Europa's concrete "armor" and began tearing the ship slowly apart. Despite Europa's considerable armament, the Ranger was clearly winning the gun duel, and approaching almost to within collision distance. It suddenly dawned on the Europa's captain that Ranger was intent on grappling and boarding! Vowing that no German capital ship would ever be captured, the Captain ordered scuttling charges set as the Ranger scrunched and ground its way to a halt up against the Europa's portside bow. Locked in hand-to-hand combat, the boarders felt a deep shudder and rumble as the charges in the stern blew out the bottom. The Europa disengaged from Ranger as the stern settled and, with all of her crew off, slowly slid into the Caribbean.

[SAMWolf]

:-) Always interested in WWII stuff.

[Chode]

Flugzeugtraeger...