You are off topic again, Kurt, 4 engines remember ?
German Navy improvements
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A German Aircraft Carrier could have dealt the British a good many problems had the carrier been able to get into the South Atlantic or Indian Ocean. The Germans could have mined any port of choice.
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No doubt ABWorsham ,the Germans underestimated the Potential of a CV at all.
The Zeppelin would have been a huge AC considering it would have been finished to be build, but:a.) Staff needed to be on the same page on how to use an CV and where.(German Naval Command was split into surface and under the surface commands)
b.) The Kriegsmarine needed their own Airforce in command.(in CV´s converted, thank you)
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AC’s proved to provide a bigger threat rather then Battleships but needed a bigger household and logistic.
How can Air Conditioners be a threat? England is too cold anyway so no need for Central Air.
You must mean CV’s…the proper abbreviation for Carrier.
And this ACC thing is a collegiate sports division. Atlantic Coast Conference ( ACC) is no and i repeat no threat to the British.
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That was a rude and unnecessary post, Imperious Leader. We all respect each other here on the WW2 thread and do not insult other members.
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I could say what the heck is an A/C? but i know what they are already.
Plus the poster edited it and thanked me, so not an insult by any means.
(in CV�s converted, thank you)
Perhaps you might first read the posts rather than defending nobody who was insulted?
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I hope it wasn’t meant insultingly, or to embarrass Aequitas et Veritas. He posts here often and obviously has an interest here. I like what he has to say and am sure I am not the only one.
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The Germans wouldn’t have called it CV or AC anyway.
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I believe you could have sunk it with one torpedo, whatever it was called, Herr KaLeun.
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Probably not. It took a bit more effort than that to sink the only carrier the Germans launched during the war. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_aircraft_carrier_Graf_Zeppelin.
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Can someone tell me if this is the correct spelling of ImbeciLe?
Had a Nazi carrier been loose in the atlantic instead of the Bismarck or both…
What a great book that would have made.
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I did not know the work on the Carrier was that far advanced. I thought it was just a concept.
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The Graf Zeppelin was really a light carrier or CVL. It didn’t have a high plane capacity and would need freedom to operate in open waters from bases in France. I bet it would have been sunk within the week of it’s operation.
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A German Navy Air Force could have escorted U-Boats, protecting the departing and returning Boats in the North Sea and Bay of Biscay. In 1943 the Bay of Biscay became a turkey shoot for Allied aircraft on U-Boats.
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The Danish Straights would have been worse, or Norway. UK had many bases outside of enemy planes and many access points to the Atlantic, probably why that CV was never launched. Germany on the other hand was always in threat of UK planes, etc. The U-boat campaign was the only solution for Hitler given his positional disadvantages.
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I wouldn’t call the Graf Zeppelin a “light” carrier (let alone CV or CVL, which terminology is used by the US Navy alone). At 33,550 tonnes, the Graf Zeppelin was of comparable size to other WW2 fleet carriers. It did carry fewer planes, though.
If it had been completed (and I don’t say that doing so would have been a good idea in the first place), I think it would have been best used in Norway alongside Tirpitz. Tirpitz was a headache for the British not because of what it did, but because of what it might do, as they constantly had to take its existence into account when operating in the North Atlantic. The planes on Graf Zeppelin could have provided a similar threat. And of course, those planes would have been very useful to protect the ships when the British came to bomb them.About the Bay of Biscay - I don’t think a German carrier would have been any good there. If Germany lacked the capacity to protect its U-boats with land-based planes by 1943, anything else wouldn’t have worked either.
Apart from all that, more U-boats would definitely have been the best naval build for Germany, imho.
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My Bay of Biscay comment had to do with German Navy land based aircraft.(although I didn’t make that clear) If the Germans had large number a aircraft to devote to U-Boat protect and hunting for convoys, this could have made huge impact in the war.
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ABWorsham & Others,
––I would say that “all of the above” was part of the original plans for Hitlers’ Navy that didn’t “PLAN” on war breaking out until 1946.
----It seems very obvious that 200(or more) submarines would be the most effective of these limited answers. “Operation Drumbeat” against the U.S.A. had to commence with only a ‘handful’ of U-boats to start their ‘Happy Time’.
----I very much enjoy these discussions on interesting topics as many differing viewpoints can be viewed, and much learned.
“Tall Paul”
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@Tall:
ABWorsham & Others,
––I very much enjoy these discussions on interesting topics as many differing viewpoints can be viewed, and much learned.
“Tall Paul”
I agree friend, I enjoy talking to you all.
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@Imperious:
The Graf Zeppelin was really a light carrier or CVL. It didn’t have a high plane capacity and would need freedom to operate in open waters from bases in France. I bet it would have been sunk within the week of it’s operation.
I collected some infos on the Graf Zeppelin and it seemed that the Germans back then didn´t know what to do with a CV anyway.
Bewaffnung:(Armour)
Seeziel-Artillerie:(Sea Arty) 16 x 15 cm L/55 Geschütze in acht Doppellafetten
Flak:(AA guns) 12 x 10,5 cm L/65 in 6 Doppellafetten, 22 x 3,7 cm L/83 in 11 Doppellafetten, 28 x 2 cm in 7 Vierlingslafetten
Flugzeuge:(Planes) 20 Mehrzweck-Maschinen Fi 156, 10 Jagdflugzeuge Me 109 T,  13 Sturzkampfbomber Ju 87 (Die Maschinen sollten in der Trägergruppe 186 zusammengefaßt werden.)
What caught my attention is that the Kriegsmarine seriously considered to use the Fi 156, a propeller plane mostly used for reconaissance missions. It could be equipped with a 135 kg waterbomb or clusters but I doubt the effectivness of those planes in Air to Air combat or Air to sea combat. Only 10 Me´s and 13 Stukkas would have been on the CV.
What were they thinking??..reconaissance the enemy to death?.. :-D
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Nice work Aequitas et Veritas.
I do think reconnaissance is underrated though. Think of the possibilities: they would always have found the Tirpitz if she ever got lost in those fjords!
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