German
aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin
Graf Zeppelin was
an aircraft carrier of the Kriegsmarine, named in honor
of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Her construction was
ordered on 16 November 1935, and her keel was laid down
28 December 1936 by Deutsche Werke of Kiel. She was
launched on 8 December 1938, but was never commissioned.
In 1935, Adolf Hitler announced
that Germany would construct aircraft carriers to
strengthen the Kriegsmarine. The keels of two were laid
down the next year. Two years later, Grand Admiral Erich
Raeder presented an ambitious shipbuilding program called
the Z Plan, in which four carriers were to be built by
1945. In 1939, he revised the plan, reducing the number
to be built to two.
The German Navy has always
maintained a policy of not assigning a name to a ship
until she is launched. The first German carrier, laid
down as "Carrier A," was named Graf
Zeppelin when launched in 1938. The second carrier
bore only the title "Carrier B," since she was
never launched. Various names, including Peter
Strasser and Deutschland, were rumored, but
no official decision was ever made.
A review of the F?hrer's
conferences on matters dealing with the German Navy, the
minutes of which were captured after the fall of the
Third Reich, reveals Hitler's vacillating interest in the
carriers. Marshall Hermann G?ring, Commander in Chief of
the Luftwaffe, was resentful of any incursion on his
authority as head of the country's air power and he
frustrated Raeder at every opportunity. Within his own
service, Raeder found opposition in Admiral Karl Doenitz,
a submarine man.
By May 1941, the strain on manpower
and raw materials was being felt in Germany. Raeder was
still optimistic, however, and informed Hitler that Graf
Zeppelin, then about 85 per cent complete, would be
completed in about a year and that another year would be
required for sea trials and flight training.
Though Hitler continued to assure
Raeder that the carriers would be built, the Admiral's
war with G?ring had no truce and became increasingly
bitter. G?ring showed his contempt for the naval air arm
by informing Hitler and Raeder that the aircraft ordered
for Graf Zeppelin could not be available until
the end of 1944. G?ring's delaying tactics worked.
Construction on the carriers had
been fitful from the start. "Carrier B" was
abandoned in 1940 and broken up. Manpower and material
shortages plagued the Graf Zeppelin.
Prodded by Raeder, Hitler ordered
G?ring 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. This forced another
delay in the construction of the carrier: the flight deck
installations had to be changed.
By 1943, Hitler had become
disenchanted with his Navy. Raeder was relieved at his
own request and Doenitz, the submarine admiral, took the
top naval post. Work on Graf Zeppelin stopped
completely.
As the end of World War II neared, Graf
Zeppelin was scuttled in shallow water at Szczecin
(known to the Germans as Stettin) on 25 April, 1945.
After Germany's surrender, though, her history and fate
is unclear. According to the terms of the Allied
Tripartite Commission, a "Category C" ship
(damaged or scuttled) should have been destroyed or sunk
in deep water by 15 August 1946. However, reports were
received in 1947 that she had been raised by the Soviet
Union and towed to Leningrad. She probably left
Seeswinoujcie (the port of Szczecin, known to the Germans
as Swinem?nde) on 14 August 1947.
It is very unlikely that the hulk
made it to Leningrad; the arrival of such a large and
unusual vessel would have been noticed by Western
intelligence forces. This assumption implies that the
hulk was lost at sea between Swinem?nde and Leningrad.
One account concludes that she
struck a mine north of R?gen on 15 August 1947, but
R?gen, west of Swinem?nde, is not on the sailing route
to Leningrad. Further north, in the Gulf of Finland, a
heavily-mined area difficult for Western observers to
monitor, is more likely.
Another account specifies that the
Soviets designated Graf Zeppelin
"PO-101" (Floating Base Number 101), towed a
short way from Swinem?nde, and anchored as a training
target for dive-bombers and torpedo vessels. The tests
began on 16 August 1947. Allegedly, the Soviets installed
aerial bombs on the flight deck, in hangars and even
inside the funnels (to simulate a load of combat
munitions), and then dropped bombs from aircraft, fired
shells, and shot torpedoes into her. This assault would
both comply with the Tripartite mandate (albeit late) and
provide the Soviets with experience in sinking an
aircraft carrier.
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