German WWII carrier Graf Zeppelin found

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Donegeal
So it IS possible that they built it thinking that they would evenually need it for a future US invasion.

I'm with Leo here, some Nazioberlings probably had wet dreams about such an invasion, but practically they couldn't do it. Still, the idea makes a nice PG scn

[Dr Strangelove]

It would have provided better coverage for the Kreigsmarine to manuver in the North Sea. Remember that in WW1 the German Navy was able to bring the war to the British people for awhile by shelling coastal towns. In the pre-war era some naval romantics may have harbored fond dreams of repeating this glorious episode in the history of German naval prowess with even the possibility of better success. There was a plan to build a respectable fleet of battleships. At the time they didn't really know for certain how much of a menace that aircraft were going to be to ships at sea. Carriers were thought of as providing long range scouting primarily. Anyway, when the war came so early those hopes were dashed.

[Andrew1999]

I always thought the Graf Zeppelin was never actually built--I guess because they never used it in the war. I thought it only existed in WWII games.

[BeBMan]

It was never put into service, but yeah, it was laid down and launched in 1938 as St. Leo said.

[Proteus_MST]

It was laid down but never completed AFAIK and therefore never able to really weigh anchor and sail off on combat missions.
AFAIK it wasn´t even able to move by its own power, but had to be towed by other ships

[Sandman]

A German carrier wouldn't have made one bit of difference in the Atlantic.

[Lancer]

The Bismark would have swept the seas if they had a CAP of modern fighters to kill those torpedo biplanes. No convoy could have faced her guns.

The German navy should have run like hell after dropping off the army in Norway. Inexcusable waste.

[BlackCat]

Yeah, I guess that Bismarck, Tirpitz, GZ and a bunch of smaller ships could have made some turmoil in the atlantic - especially if they worked together with the wolfpacks.

Fortunatedly Göring didn't like the idea of airforces not under his control so he obstructed the delivery of planes

[RoboCon]

Hello there! I see you are discussing Aircraft Carrier. Perhaps I can be of assistance.

Production of this hypothetical aircraft carrier would have taken at least 150 shields and 75 turns, even by the GAO's conservative estimates. Another liberal conspiracy designed to give hard working Americans indigestion.

[Ecthy]

You're losing touch

[BlackCat]

It seems that RoboCon is a very lousy Civ player

[Kontiki]

Didn't 9/11 change everything?

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Didn't 9/11 change everything?

No.

[Lancer]

Robo's got a virus.

[Dr Strangelove]

IIRC the Germans had problems with landing aircraft on the ship. The Brits, Americans and Japs had been experimenting with carriers for nearly twenty years at the time, they had learned through hard experience the fine points of carrier take offs and landings. The German navy had a lot of catching up to do. Furthermore the aircraft they had, Messerschmidts and Heinkels weren't well suited to the type of abuse carrier landings gave to their landing gear. Germany would have needed to develop new types of aircraft to meet the needs of the navy. In Germany, the US and Britain the navies had had their own air arms long enough to have the facilities to do their own development, but the german navy did not. In the end I believe the der Furher refused to approve R & D of carrier aircraft as he realised that there wasn't enough time to develop Germany's surface navy. He believed that a continental land war would suffice to settle the issue.