Posted on 07/28/2006 5:52:40 AM PDT by wolf78
"GRAF ZEPPELIN" REDISCOVERED
Hitler's Showpiece Aircraft Carrier Found
A Polish oil firm working in the Baltic Sea has found the remains of the "Graf Zeppelin," Hitler's first -- and last -- aircraft carrier. The ship sank for good sometime after World War II, but exactly where and why is an enduring mystery of the early Cold War.
Divers working for the Polish oil firm Petrobaltic on Monday discovered the rusting hulk of Nazi Germany's only aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, sunk in mysterious circumstances by the Soviets after World War II. Its exact location had been a riddle for almost 60 years.
Experts in the Polish Navy, using robots and sonar, confirmed on Thursday that the wreckage really was the Graf Zeppelin. The 260-meter (850-foot) ship had been a showpiece of Hitler's navy, but it never went into battle. Intended to carry 42 planes, the vessel was begun in 1936, launched in 1938, but never finished before German troops had to scuttle it in 1945. It was "a grandiose technical achievement," military historian Ulrich Israel told SPIEGEL ONLINE, "mainly when you consider that the Germans had no examples to work from to build such a carrier."
Hitler started the war before the German navy finished building its prestige ship. His planners gave priority to building U-Boats, and the Graf Zeppelin had to be towed to Gdansk, where it was used for storage. The Germans finally anchored it in a shallow stream feeding the Oder, where troops blew holes in its hull before they fled the invading Red Army. The Soviets renovated the ship, and moved it -- but how it met its final end is still the subject of controversy.
(Excerpt) Read more at service.spiegel.de ...
I thought the Graf Zeppelin was an airship not an a/c carrier.
Nice. A little piece of naval history to start the morning off. Great article!
But after Googling the matter, I guess I thought wrong.
You're thinking of the dreaded Led Zeppelin. Oh wait, never mind :)
No, that was Led Zeppelin.......
history nugget...
I'm terribly sorry!
I checked under the keywords "Germany" and "Poland", nothing there, so I thought no one had posted it yet.
Different article, different paper, same subject matter.
It's not a re-post.
This is the first I've heard of it. Thanks for the post, even if it was a repost.
Yes I loved his hit, Stairway to Fatherland.
"There's a Fuhrer who knows,
All that glitters is gold . ."
(Seguing into: "We all drowned in a German Submarine,
a German submarine, a German submarine . . " wait a sec, that's Herr Ringo. machts nichts)
Po-ta-toe, Po-tah-toe
It's not a re-post.
Why be sorry. I suspect that there are many readers who missed the first post. Thanks for the interesting article.
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