Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier

Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier was the only aircraft carrier built by Germany, and one of the strangest ships of the Second World War: a large, fast, heavily armed carrier that was launched in December 1938, worked on for years, and never entered service. Named after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the airship pioneer, the ship was about 262 metres long, displaced about 23,200 tons standard, and was designed to carry about 42 aircraft. She was built at Kiel, launched with ceremony, and then left unfinished as the German navy changed its priorities, the Luftwaffe refused to provide aircraft, and the war demanded U-boats instead. By 1943 she was about 95 per cent complete, with her engines installed and her flight deck fitted, but her guns, catapults, and aircraft were missing. She was towed to Stettin, scuttled by her crew in April 1945 to keep her from the Soviets, raised by the Soviet navy, and sunk as a target in the Baltic in August 1947. Graf Zeppelin never launched an aircraft in anger, and she remains a study in a navy that wanted a carrier but never learned to use one.

1. Key Facts

Class/Type	Graf Zeppelin-class fleet aircraft carrier
Launched	8 December 1938
Commissioned	Never commissioned
Displacement	About 23,200 tons standard; about 33,550 tons full load
Length	262.5 metres
Speed	About 33.8 knots
Complement	Planned about 1,720 officers and men, plus aircrew
Armament	Planned 16 x 150 mm guns; 12 x 105 mm anti-aircraft guns; 22 x 37 mm and 28 x 20 mm anti-aircraft guns
Aircraft	Planned about 42 aircraft: Bf 109T fighters and Ju 87C dive bombers
Fate	Scuttled April 1945; raised by the Soviet Union; sunk as a target, August 1947

2. Development

The German Navy and the Carrier

Germany had no aircraft carrier tradition, and Graf Zeppelin was born from the ambitions of Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, who wanted a balanced fleet with battleships, cruisers, and carriers. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 allowed Germany to build carriers, and the navy ordered two: Graf Zeppelin, laid down at Kiel in December 1936, and her sister, known only as Flugzeugtrager B, laid down at Kiel in 1938 and never launched. The design was influenced by British and American carriers, and the German navy sent officers to study foreign carriers, but it had no experience of carrier operations and no naval air arm. The Luftwaffe, under Hermann Goering, controlled all German aircraft, and Goering refused to give the navy its own air force. The result was a carrier designed by a navy that had never operated one, for aircraft that belonged to another service, and the ship was delayed from the start by arguments over who would fly from her.

Construction and Delay

Graf Zeppelin was launched on 8 December 1938, with Goering’s daughter as sponsor, but fitting out was slow. The navy and the Luftwaffe argued over the aircraft: the navy wanted navalised versions of the Bf 109 fighter and the Ju 87 dive bomber, while the Luftwaffe was reluctant to spare aircraft and pilots. Work was interrupted by the outbreak of war in September 1939, when the navy needed steel and labour for U-boats, and by 1940 the ship was laid up, about 85 per cent complete. Work resumed in 1942, when the loss of the battleship Bismarck and the success of British carriers convinced Hitler to order her completion, but the work was slow, the guns and catapults were not ready, and the aircraft were still in dispute. By early 1943, when she was about 95 per cent complete, Hitler ordered work stopped again, and the ship was towed to Stettin, where she lay until the end of the war.

3. Design

A Carrier Built Like a Cruiser

Graf Zeppelin was designed as a fast carrier that could defend itself against cruisers, and her armament reflected that idea. She carried 16 150 mm guns in casemates, the same guns as a light cruiser, mounted in the hull below the flight deck. The guns were intended to let the ship fight off surface ships, but they took up space and weight that could have been used for aircraft, and they were a sign that the German navy still thought in terms of surface gunnery. Her flight deck was about 240 metres long, with two hangars and three lifts, and her island was on the starboard side. She was driven by four sets of geared turbines, producing about 200,000 shaft horsepower, which gave her a speed of about 33.8 knots, faster than most battleships. Her range was about 8,000 nautical miles at 19 knots, enough for operations in the Atlantic.

Flight Deck and Hangars

Graf Zeppelin’s flight deck was fitted with two catapults, which were intended to launch aircraft without the need for a long run, and with arresting gear for landing. Her hangars were divided into upper and lower decks, with a total capacity for about 42 aircraft, although the number varied with the mix of fighters and bombers. The planned air group was about 30 Bf 109T fighters and 12 Ju 87C dive bombers, later revised to include torpedo bombers. The Bf 109T was a navalised version of the standard Luftwaffe fighter, with folding wings, an arrester hook, and catapult fittings, and the Ju 87C was a navalised Stuka, with folding wings and a jettisonable undercarriage. Neither aircraft was ever flown from a carrier in service, and the pilots who were trained for the ship were reassigned to land-based units when work stopped. The catapults, which were a German design, were never fully tested at sea.

4. Technical Specifications

Hull and Machinery

Graf Zeppelin measured 262.5 metres in length, 31.5 metres in beam, and about 7.6 metres in draught. Her standard displacement was about 23,200 tons, and her full-load displacement was about 33,550 tons, although the figures vary because the ship was never completed and her final displacement was never measured. Her 16 boilers fed four turbine sets driving four shafts, and her designed speed was about 33.8 knots. Her planned complement was about 1,720 officers and men, with the air group adding about 300 more, for a total of about 2,000. Her armour included a belt of about 100 millimetres over the machinery and magazines, a deck of about 40 millimetres over the hangars, and protected fuel tanks. The armour was heavier than that of Japanese carriers, and it reflected the German navy’s expectation that the ship would fight surface ships as well as aircraft.

Protection and Seakeeping

Graf Zeppelin’s protection was designed for a ship that would operate in the North Sea and the Atlantic, where it might meet British cruisers and battleships. Her belt armour, about 100 millimetres thick, was intended to stop cruiser shells, and her deck armour was intended to stop bombs. Her underwater protection included a torpedo bulge and compartmentalisation, although the system was never tested. Her seakeeping was good for a ship of her size, and her high speed made her wet forward in heavy weather. Her steering and stability were adequate, although the ship’s handling was never tested at sea under power, because she never made a sea trial. The only time she moved under her own power was a brief test in 1940, when she was towed to Gotenhafen for trials of her machinery, and even then she did not fly aircraft.

5. Armament and Aircraft

Guns and Anti-Aircraft Defence

Graf Zeppelin’s planned armament was the heaviest of any carrier of the war. Her 16 150 mm guns, in eight twin casemates, were intended for surface action, and her 12 105 mm guns, in six twin mounts, were for anti-aircraft defence. For close-range air defence she was to carry 22 37 mm guns and 28 20 mm guns, a heavy armament by the standards of 1938. The guns were never fully installed: by 1943, when work stopped, some of the 150 mm guns had been removed and sent to Norway for coastal defence, and the anti-aircraft guns were incomplete. The ship’s armament reflected a doctrine that was already out of date: by 1942, carriers were protected by their aircraft and by escorts, not by their own guns, and the space taken by the 150 mm guns would have been better used for aircraft and fuel. The German navy, which had no carrier experience, did not learn that lesson until it was too late.

The Aircraft That Never Flew

The planned air group for Graf Zeppelin was about 42 aircraft: Bf 109T fighters and Ju 87C dive bombers, with torpedo bombers added later. The Bf 109T was built in small numbers, about 70 aircraft, and the Ju 87C was built in only a handful, and neither was ever used from a carrier. The pilots who trained for the ship, in a unit called Tragergruppe 186, were formed in 1938 and trained on land, but they were disbanded in 1940 and sent to land-based fighter units. The Luftwaffe’s refusal to provide a naval air arm was the main reason Graf Zeppelin was never completed: without aircraft and pilots, a carrier is an empty hull, and the German navy could not create a naval air force on its own. The ship’s catapults and arresting gear were installed, but they were never used, and the aircraft that were built for her were used as land-based fighters and bombers.

6. Service History

A Ship That Never Sailed

Graf Zeppelin never entered service, and her service history is a history of delays, cancellations, and towings. After her launch in December 1938, she was fitted out at Kiel, and in 1940 she was towed to Gotenhafen for machinery trials. In 1941 she was laid up at Stettin, and in 1942 work resumed, with the intention of completing her by 1943. The work was slow, because the navy had other priorities, and because the guns, catapults, and aircraft were not ready. In January 1943, Hitler ordered work stopped, after a dispute with the navy over the value of large surface ships, and the ship was towed to Stettin, where she remained, guarded by a small crew, until April 1945. She never sailed on an operation, never launched an aircraft, and never fired a gun in anger. Her only movement under her own power was the brief trial in 1940, and her only voyages were under tow.

The End of the War

In April 1945, as Soviet troops approached Stettin, the German crew scuttled Graf Zeppelin, opening her seacocks and setting demolition charges, to keep her from falling into Soviet hands. The ship settled in shallow water, with her flight deck above the surface, and the Soviets, who had been told the ship was a valuable prize, raised her in 1946 and towed her to Leningrad. The Soviet navy studied the ship, removed her equipment, and used her for target practice. In August 1947, Graf Zeppelin was sunk as a target in the Baltic, off Swinoujscie, by Soviet aircraft and ships. The sinking was kept secret for decades, and the wreck was only located in 2006, by a Polish survey ship, in about 80 metres of water. The wreck is now a protected site, and it is the only German carrier ever built.

7. Notable Actions

The Launch and the Promise

Graf Zeppelin’s launch on 8 December 1938 was a major propaganda event, with Hitler, Goering, and Raeder in attendance, and the ship was presented as the future of the German navy. The launch was covered in newsreels across Germany, and the ship was named after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the airship pioneer, a name that linked the new carrier to German aviation history. The ceremony promised a navy that could challenge Britain at sea, but the promise was never kept. The launch was the high point of the ship’s career, and everything that followed was delay and disappointment. The ship’s sister, Flugzeugtrager B, was laid down in 1938 and scrapped on the slipway in 1940, before she was launched, and Graf Zeppelin became the only German carrier, a symbol of a fleet that was never built.

The Soviet Prize

The Soviet raising of Graf Zeppelin in 1946 was a significant event for the Soviet navy, which had no carriers of its own and wanted to study the German design. Soviet engineers examined the ship’s flight deck, catapults, and machinery, and they removed her equipment for study. The ship was towed to Leningrad, where she was used as a floating barracks and a target for weapons tests. In 1947, the Soviets decided to sink her, partly because the Western Allies had demanded that German warships be divided among them, and the Soviets wanted to keep the ship from being claimed by Britain or America. The sinking was carried out in secret, with the ship towed to the Baltic and sunk by bombs and torpedoes, and the location was not disclosed until the wreck was found in 2006.

8. Fate

Scuttled and Sunk as a Target

Graf Zeppelin was scuttled by her crew on 25 April 1945, in the Oder at Stettin, to prevent her capture by the advancing Soviet army. The crew opened the seacocks and set charges, and the ship settled on the riverbed, with her flight deck still above water. The Soviets raised her in March 1946, towed her to Leningrad, and used her for trials and as a target. On 16 August 1947, she was sunk as a target in the Baltic, about 55 kilometres north of Wladyslawowo, Poland, by Soviet aircraft and naval guns. The sinking was not announced, and the wreck was lost for almost 60 years, until a Polish oil survey ship found it in July 2006. The wreck lies in about 80 metres of water, upright, with her flight deck intact, and it is now protected under Polish law as a war grave, although no crew were aboard when she sank.

The Wreck Today

The wreck of Graf Zeppelin was surveyed in 2006 and 2007, and the surveys showed that the ship is in good condition, with her flight deck, island, and hull largely intact. The wreck is a popular site for divers, although diving is restricted because the ship is a war grave and because the Baltic is deep and cold. The wreck has been studied by historians, who have used it to confirm the ship’s design and to understand the German carrier programme. The discovery of the wreck ended decades of speculation about the ship’s fate, and it confirmed that the Soviets had sunk her as a target, as had been rumoured. Graf Zeppelin’s wreck is the only surviving German carrier, and it is a reminder of a navy that built a carrier but never learned to use it.

9. Legacy

A Carrier Without an Air Force

Graf Zeppelin’s legacy is a lesson in the importance of naval aviation as a system, not just a ship. A carrier is useless without aircraft, pilots, and a doctrine for using them, and Germany had none of these. The Luftwaffe controlled all aircraft, the navy had no air arm, and the two services could not agree on how to operate a carrier. The British and American navies, by contrast, had naval air arms that were part of the navy, and they had spent two decades learning to operate carriers. The Japanese navy, which also had a naval air arm, built carriers and used them effectively, although it too failed to replace its pilots. Graf Zeppelin showed that a navy cannot buy a carrier and expect to use it: it must build the air force, the training, and the doctrine at the same time, and Germany did none of these.

Memory and the German Carrier Programme

Graf Zeppelin is remembered as Germany’s only carrier, a ship that was launched with great ceremony and never used, and as a symbol of the German navy’s failure to adapt to the age of the aircraft carrier. The ship appears in histories of the Kriegsmarine, in museum models, and in the wreck that lies in the Baltic. Her sister, Flugzeugtrager B, is remembered only as a hull that was scrapped before she was launched. For historians, Graf Zeppelin stands as an example of a weapon that was built for a war that had already changed, and of a navy that invested in a carrier without investing in the air force to fly from it. The ship’s story is a cautionary tale for any navy that seeks to build a carrier without building the system around it.

10. Frequently Asked Questions

What was Graf Zeppelin?

Graf Zeppelin was Germany’s only aircraft carrier, a large, fast, heavily armed ship named after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the airship pioneer. She was about 262 metres long, displaced about 23,200 tons standard, and was designed to carry about 42 aircraft. She was built at Kiel and launched in December 1938, but she was never completed or commissioned, and she never launched an aircraft in anger. She was scuttled by her crew in April 1945, raised by the Soviet navy, and sunk as a target in the Baltic in August 1947.

Why was Graf Zeppelin never completed?

Graf Zeppelin was never completed because the German navy and the Luftwaffe could not agree on aircraft and pilots for a carrier. The Luftwaffe refused to provide aircraft, the navy changed its priorities, and the war demanded U-boats instead of carriers. Work was stopped in 1943, when the ship was about 95 per cent complete, with her engines installed and her flight deck fitted. Her guns, catapults and aircraft were still missing, she was towed to Stettin, and she remained a study in a navy that wanted a carrier but never learned to use one.

How many aircraft was Graf Zeppelin designed to carry?

Graf Zeppelin was designed to carry about 42 aircraft, including Bf 109T fighters and Ju 87C dive bombers. Neither aircraft was ever flown from a carrier in service, and Graf Zeppelin herself never launched an aircraft in anger. Her planned armament was heavy for a carrier, with 16 150 mm guns and many anti-aircraft guns, because she was built like a cruiser as well as a carrier. Her planned complement was about 1,720 officers and men, plus aircrew, for a ship about 262 metres long that displaced about 23,200 tons standard.

How was Graf Zeppelin sunk?

Graf Zeppelin was scuttled by her crew in April 1945 to keep her from the Soviets, as the war in Europe came to an end. She was raised by the Soviet navy in 1946, after the war, and she became a Soviet prize rather than a German warship. In August 1947 she was sunk as a target in the Baltic by Soviet aircraft and ships, ending the career of a ship that had never entered service. She had been launched in December 1938 and worked on for years, yet she never launched an aircraft in anger.

Where is the wreck of Graf Zeppelin?

The wreck of Graf Zeppelin lies in the Baltic Sea, about 55 kilometres north of Wladyslawowo, Poland, in about 80 metres of water. It was located in 2006 by a Polish survey ship, more than half a century after she was sunk as a target in August 1947. She had been scuttled by her crew in April 1945, raised by the Soviet navy in 1946, and then sunk by Soviet aircraft and ships in the Baltic. Graf Zeppelin was Germany’s only aircraft carrier ever launched, a large ship about 262 metres long that never entered service.

Did Germany build any other carriers?

Germany laid down a sister ship, known as Flugzeugtrager B, in 1938, but she was never launched and was scrapped on the slipway in 1940. Graf Zeppelin was therefore the only German carrier ever launched, and the only aircraft carrier built by Germany. She herself was launched in December 1938, worked on for years, and never completed or commissioned, although she was about 95 per cent complete by 1943. The German navy changed its priorities, the Luftwaffe refused to provide aircraft, and the war demanded U-boats instead, so the carrier programme ended with a single unfinished ship.

11. Sources

1. Wikipedia, “German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin” — construction, specifications, and fate.
2. Siegfried Breyer, “Graf Zeppelin: The German Aircraft Carrier” (Schiffer, 1989) — the standard history of the ship.
3. Erich Groner, “German Warships 1815-1945, Vol. 1: Major Surface Vessels” (Conway, 1990) — specifications and construction data.
4. Ulrich H. J. Kopp, “Graf Zeppelin” in “Warship” (Conway, 1988) — design and development.
5. Frank O. H. Smith, “The German Aircraft Carrier Graf Zeppelin” (Naval Institute Proceedings, 1980) — the carrier programme.
6. Polish Navy survey reports, 2006-2007 — the location and condition of the wreck.