Poland's Navy said Thursday that it has identified a sunken shipwreck in the Baltic Sea as almost certainly being Nazi Germany's only aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin.
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Now if they can only convert it into a spaceship, we'll be all set.
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Hmm - would be nice if the Russians could dig up what the Soviets did with it. Lost at sea? Sunk as target? Broken up for scrap, in which case this can't be it?
Some record was made, it was a valuable item in 1947 even if it wasn't battle worthy. As I understand it there is considerable doubt it could have ever been a very effective carrier even if the rest of the German fleet could have been able to support one.
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
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posted
As far as a viable weapon, the GZ wouldn't have been much. The Kriegsmarine had no experience with carrier operations and no real aircraft that were carrier worthy. Her most probable compliment would have been FW190's and Stukas. While the FW's were good aircraft the JU-87 was outdated by 1941.
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quote:While the FW's were good aircraft the JU-87 was outdated by 1941.
The Stuka was definitely helpless against Spitfires or Hurricanes. But wouldn't a sea-based Stuka have faced a little less opposition than the land-based ones, at least for a little while? I'm not too familiar with WWII era British carrier-based aircraft.
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
I read somewhere that Graf Zeppelin was in fact target-sunk. Maybe it was Wikipedia.
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Shik is infact right, it was target sunk on August 16th, 1947 after they tried repairing her.
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quote:Originally posted by WizArtist II: As far as a viable weapon, the GZ wouldn't have been much. The Kriegsmarine had no experience with carrier operations and no real aircraft that were carrier worthy.
Good thing too- if they were able to use it as a re-supply/re-fueling station for air raids, it would have been bad news indeed.
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Toad, since they fought mainly a ground war against the German's that is a very high number.
Jason, the East Coast cities could have been very Londonesque indded.
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Sure - but I meant that they never sunk anybody else's either. Or even one their own as a target since they didn't have any out of service (that I know of) while they were still the "Soviets".
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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With the Soviets, 60% of their navy was "out of service" at any given time.
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quote:I'm not too familiar with WWII era British carrier-based aircraft.
There's a reason for that...
Apart from the ancient Fairey Swordfish biplane, most British naval aviation was a joke. I mean, the Swordfish was a joke, too, but it sunk the Bismarck and half the Italian navy, won the Battle of the Atlantic, and would not doubt still be fighting if it weren't for workplace health issues about the open cockpits.
British naval aviation victories not attributed to Swordfish generally went to American designs on extended loan. The RAF hated naval aviation even more than the USMC hates the USAF hates the USN hates the US Army, and the stuff developed for the carriers was sub-substandard. You might search for Fairey's Albacore, Barracuda, Fulmar or Seafox, or the Blackburn Skua... Okay, the latter might have been a good plane, but for a shorter time than the Stuka was.
posted
*hee hee* I love interservice rivalries. Surface fleet versus submariners. Hell, I know a lot of Coasties, and you know what the definition of Coast Guard is, yes? "The hard nucleus around which the Navy forms in time of war." Or how my friends in several different branches define "Marines": "Men Armed Riding In Navy's Excess Surplus".
Then there's the old joke... A Navy Seaman and a Marine Rifleman [insert services of your choice here] are standing side-by-side at the urinals. The Seaman finishes first and goes to leave. The Marine calls after him "Hey! In the Marine Corps, they teach us to wash our hands after taking a piss!" To which the Navy man replies "In the Navy, they teach us not to piss on our hands."
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
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My great-uncle was a naval aviator, a Swordfish pilot. One day he went to recce a new AA battery on the mainland coast. His navigator survived. . .
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