Graf Zeppelin Class Aircraft Carrier
Ship/ Class
Length
Beam
Disp.
Main Arm.
Speed
#
Date
Graf Zeppelin Class
861€ (262.5 m)
103€ (31 m)
33,550 t
42 aircraft
35
0
1942
Graf Zeppelin Class Cruiser
ID: Plastic aircraft carrier gaming piece: Graf Zeppelin class aircraft carrier from the game Axis & Allies Europe 40-2nd Ed.
The Story of the Graf Zeppelin Class: The story of the Graf Zeppelin is the classic story of a €might-have-been.€ The Graf Zeppelin would have been the first fleet carrier of Germany€s Z-Plan, an all-encompassing fleet build-up that would have given Germany an all-around, world-class navy with all of the contemporary ship types: battleships, light & heavy cruisers, destroyers and aircraft carriers. As it would have been Germany€s first, undoubtedly they would have had much to learn about flight operations at sea, but given that the aircraft they were preparing for sea service, Me-109 fighters and Ju-87 €Stuka€ dive bombers, the Graf Zeppelin€s potential as an instrument of sea-power projection is clear. Events overtook such ambitious plans, however: while Hitler had promised his navy that they would have until at least 1942 to build up, war started 3 years earlier. With too little time to catch up to the Royal Navy€s conventional fleet capabilities, the Germans were forced to shift their emphasis back to what had worked so well for them in the last war: submarine warfare. Meanwhile, the army and Luftwaffe (German Air Force) were getting the lion€s share of the resources... and the Luftwaffe, led by the egotistical Herman Goering who saw naval air capability as a threat to his own power-base, was dragging its feet on preparing the aircraft for Germany€s new carriers. Nearly finished, the Graf Zeppelin was never completed, and its unnamed sister-ship was never even launched, but rather scrapped on its slipway in order to make use of the materials to build more submarines.
Usage Notes: Use this piece for €Global 1939€ and €Invasion of Italy€ Variants as a carrier unit. Other German warships of interest may be: the Bismark class battleship, & the Hipper class cruiser.
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