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You’ve heard of the word Zeppelin and first thing that pops to your mind are large airships, most notably the famous Hindenburg, but this Zeppelin was a bit different.
Named after Count, or in German Graf Ferdinand fone Zeppelin, the inventor of airships bearing his name in the honor, this ship was to be the first German aircraft carrier of the WW2 and
Hitler hoped that it will be one of the crucial factors in beating the Royal Navy and dominating the seas.
German navy was never as strong as the British one and it was clear to Hitler in 1934 that if he wishes to compete with the British in a potential conflict in the future, Kriegsmarine should be strengthened and new types of ships needed to be developed.
Plan Z was the name of the German plan to strengthen Kriegsmarine’s presence in the Atlantic ocean and even the odds against the Royal navy.
Among other stuff, it listed aircraft carriers as one of the priorities and 4 Graf Zeppelin class carriers were planned in total.
And having the new german airforce limited by land airbases wouldn’t do at all. Hence an aircraft carrier would be the perfect cornerstone of the Germany navy.
But, Rather than classic aircraft carrier, the idea was to incorporate heavy guns into the design so the ship can defend itself against the potential enemies. the main weaponry of the ship, apart from the aircraft obviously, would’ve been 16 150mm guns, the same ones used as secondary armament on Bismarck and Scharnhorst battleships. Further 12 heavy anti air 105mm guns would accompany a number of smaller 37 and 20mm AA guns.
This was much heavier firepower compared to some of the comparable aircraft carriers of the WW2, for example Essex class or the Japanese Akagi, even the USS Lexington or the Shinano which were the largest of the war.
And now that we mentioned Akagi, it’s interesting to note that the Germans actually obtained drawings and technical data from it and used it in the development of their own carrier.
It was to be truly massive, 262m in length, had 31.5m beam, and if you are wondering what that is, well basically fancy naval name for widest points of the ship and its draft was 7.6m, where draft is the distance from the waterline to the bottom of the keel or in simple English, the hull of the ship.
Displacement of the ship was 33.500t and maximum speed was projected at 35 knots.
Ironically, this huge aircraft carrier to take on the british could only exist… BECAUSE of the british.
In an attempt to appease and improve relations, Germany and Britian had agreed to increase the displacement limit of 38.500t for aircraft craffiers, greater than the limit of the Treaty of Versailles.
This massive ship would require a crew of around 2000, with 300 of them being the aircrew and the rest – sailors and officers. In terms of aircraft on board, we will get to a minute, so hang on.
With the green light confirmed, the keel was laid in 1936 and we move forward 3 years towards the start of the war – 1939.
