Re: Graf Zeppelin Newsreel (1938)

Eunometic wrote:
On Aug 31, 3:23 pm, LIBERATOR <spy.exp...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Aug 30, 10:00 am, Gordon <Gor...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





On Aug 29, 7:32 pm, LIBERATOR <markz...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

That happened here, with the Graf Zeppelin.

Oh. So they scuttled it?

It was scuttled by the Russians, after the Germans let it rot for
years during the war. Mark, an aircraft carrier without a LOT of
support ships is simply the biggest target afloat, and it will not
survive its first battle without that support fleet of tin cans,
cruisers, subs, oilers, etc., etc. It is a national-level
committment to send a carrier to sea, and the Germany Navy simply
didn't have the infrastructure to use the Graf Zeppelin, had it
been completed. I consider their decision to NOT complete the GZ to
be one of the smartest things the Germans did during the war years
- it would have been a magnificent waste of resources.

But they had amazing subs, wouldn't the subs combined with aircraft
aboard be effective in defending it?- Hide quoted text -


It took 3 years, in fact more like 4 years, to build a Battleship and
get it into service in good conditions. Any ship whose keel was layed
after 1941 would not be ready by 1945.

That's why Germany stopped building the H class battleships and why
the US stopped the Montanna battleships.

Aircraft carriers could be built a little faster, but not much.

The Germans did nearly and convert the Heavy Cruisers Seydlitz into an
escort carriers.


Trouble is by the time work started in March 1942 it was already
FAR too late. By the time she was completed and worked up
she would have been facing RN armoured fleet carriers operating
Seafires, Corsairs and Hellcats which would have eaten alive the
10 Me-109t's she could have carried.

Destroyers and u-boats could be built within 6-12 months and so could
effect the outcome of the war instead of justy absorbing resources.

Both the Graf Spee and Seydlitz would have been very fast, faster than
opposing cruisers and battleships.


Not markedly. Seydlitz was good for 32 knots while Graf Zeppelin was
planned to do 35 knots. The British Town Class CL was capable of
32 knots and the County Class could do 31.5.

Then there are those pesky TBF Avengers and Barracudas that can catch
it rather easily.

Keith


.

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