World War II Database

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ww2dbaseOn 18 Jun 1935, the Anglo-German Naval Treaty allowed Germany to build aircraft carriers with displacement up to 38,500 tons, and shortly after, Adolf Hitler announced that one such aircraft carrier would be built. In the autumn of 1935, German military representatives visited Japan to obtain flight deck equipment blueprints and visited the modern aircraft carrier Akagi. In 1937, the keel for Aircraft Carrier A (Flugzeugträger A) was laid down at Kiel, Germany. The ship was launched in 1938 and christened Graf Zeppelin. Head of German Navy Grand Admiral Erich Raeder found political oppositions from Air Force (Luftwaffe) head Hermann Göring for his carrier-building program, and within the navy, influential brass officers such as Admiral Karl Dönitz thought resources could be better spent elsewhere, thus Raeder found his ambitions to expand the German carrier fleet to four extremely difficult. Construction was delayed on 19 Sep 1939 as the European War began and political battles with Göring continued. On 28 Feb 1940, the frustrated Raeder ordered the hull of the second carrier, Flugzeugträger B, to be broken up and scrapped to free resources for other construction projects, though Graf Zeppelin continued to sit at Kiel, rusting. On 29 Apr 1940, Raeder recommended the transfer of Graf Zeppelin's 16 15-centimeter guns to coastal installations in Norway, which was approved by Hitler. On 12 Jul 1940, she was towed to Gotenhafen, Germany where she continued to sit without any progress. Between Jun and Nov 1941, she was at Stettin, Germany in order stay outside of Russian air strike range. Between Nov 1941 and early 1942, she served as a floating warehouse for hardwood supply for the German Navy. The successful Japanese carrier attack on Pearl Harbor in United States gave Raeder the necessary ammunition to secure permission to continue the construction, which was granted by Hitler on 13 May 1942, even though by this time the only fighter aircraft made available to Raeder were the aging Bf 109 fighters, as the strained German industry had no capacity to built dedicated carrier-borne fighters. On 5 Dec 1942, she was towed to Kiel and was placed in a floating drydock. In late Jan 1943, Hitler became disenchanted with the German Navy and ordered all large ships scrapped. During the ensuing political arguments, Raeder was relieved from command, replaced by Dönitz. Dönitz was able to convince Hitler to retract most of his order to scrap active warships, but agreed to stop all large ships still under construction, for that Dönitz also though the resources would be better spent elsewhere, namely for a larger submarine fleet. On 2 Feb 1943, the Graf Zeppelin project was ended. In Apr she was towed to a wharf in the Parnitz River near Stettin, where she sat with a 40-man skeleton crew. In Apr 1945, as the Russian forces neared, the crew flooded the ship and set demolition and depth charges, which were detonated at 1800 hours on 25 Apr. Graf Zeppelin left the legacy of being the only purpose-built aircraft carrier of the WW2-era German Navy.

ww2dbaseAfter the war, against agreements with other Allied powers, Russia refloated Graf Zeppelin in Mar 1946. She left port on 7 Apr 1947 with her flight deck loaded with containers, possibly looted factory equipment from Germany and Poland. The history after this point was not entirely certain; she either struck a naval mine and sank or, more likely, was sunk as a target ship on 16 Aug 1947. Her wreck was found on 12 Jul 2006 by a Polish ship near the port of Leba, Poland.

Aircraft Carrier Graf Zeppelin Interactive Map

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Graf Zeppelin Operational Timeline

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