Graf Zeppelin (aircraft carrier)
From Conservapedia
| Graf Zeppelin | |
|---|---|
| |
| Career | |
| Flag |  
|
| Owner | Deutchland Kriegsmarine |
| Shipyard | Deutsche Werke Kiel, Germany |
| Type | Aircraft carrier |
| Authorized | 16 November 1935 |
| Keel laid | 28 December 1936 |
| Launched | 8 December 1938 |
| Status | Destroyed and sunk as a target 16 August 1947 |
| Characteristics | |
| Displacement | 33,550 tons |
| Length | 861 ft 3 in |
| Beam | 103 ft 4 in |
| Draft | 24 ft 11 in |
| Speed | 35 knots est. |
| Armament | Sixteen SK (ship's guns) C/28 15 cm. Twelve Flak (10.5 cm) Twenty-two SK C/30 AA (3.7 cm) Twenty-eight Flak (2.0 cm) |
| Aircraft | Ten Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters Twenty Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers Twenty Fieseler Fi 167 torpedo bombers |
| Crew | 1,720 officers and men 306 flight personnel |
Graf Zeppelin was an aircraft carrier built and launched in Germany just prior to World War II, and remains the only such vessel ever constructed by that country. Launched in 1938, Graf Zeppelin was partially fitted-out before work was abandoned due to the reversals of the war, lack of funding, and in-fighting between high-ranking Nazi Party and military officials. Never commissioned and placed in service, she was sunk as a target in the Baltic Sea by the Soviet Union in 1947.
