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Graf Zeppelin
Aircraft Carrier
| Specifications | Graf
Zeppelin 19,000 tons standard, was launched in 1938. The Kriegsmarine first and
only aircraft carrier. But was never completed, never commissioned, and never
saw action | Zeppelin was an aircraft
carrier of the Kriegsmarine, named in honor of Graf (Count) Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
It was Germany's only aircraft carrier during World War II. Its construction was
ordered on 16 November 1935, and its keel was laid down 28 December 1936 by Deutsche
Werke of Kiel. It was launched on 8 December 1938, but was never completed, never
commissioned, and never saw action. 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 Plan Z, in which four carriers
were to be built by 1945. In 1939, he revised the plan, reducing the number to
be built to two. |
| Ordered | November 16, 1935 |
| Laid down | December
28, 1936 | | Launched | December
8, 1938 | | Commissioned | Never
commissioned | | Decommissioned | N/A |
| Fate | Destroyed and sunk
August
16, 1947 | | | |
| Displacement |
33,550 tonnes | | Length | 262.5
metres | | Beam | 31.5 metres
| | Draft | |
| Powerplant | Geared turbines |
| Power |
147,059 kW | | Propellers |
Four screws (German ships usually had three) |
| Speed |
35 knots | | Endurance |
14,816 km at 19 knots | |
Complement | 1,720
crew
306 flight personnel | | Armament |
16 × Sk. 15 cm.
12 × Flak (10.5 cm)
22 ×
Flak (3.7 cm)
28 × Flak (2.0 cm) | |
Aircraft | Complement
of 50
Messerschmitt Me 109T fighters
Junkers Ju 87C dive bombers
Fieseler Fi 167 torpedo bombers |
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is NOT a site meant to promote Nazism, the politics of Adolf
Hitler, or any other political ideology. It deals with the
subject of German military during a particular period of
history--nothing else.
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