The Graf Zeppelin was a victim of the disorganization and feuding of the German high command. The Navy controlled the ship. Goering insisted the Luftwaffe control the planes. Construction was stop-and-go all through the war. The Luftwaffe did assign a squadron of Me 109Ts and Ju 87s to the carrier, but they wound up on the Eastern Front when construction was finally halted with the ship nearly complete. She was captured relatively intact in Stettin by the Soviets, who tried to sail her back to Leningrad, loaded down with looted railway freight cars (trucks). She sank while under tow. I don't have her statistics on hand, but I know there are a few good web pages on the German Navy that probably do.
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"My intensity is intense." -- Roger Clemens
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." -- Winston Churchill.
"I am not a hero. The heroes are all dead. I am a survivor." -- Sgt. William Guarnere, Easy Company, 506th Parachute Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
Check out my little contributions to World War II history at my web pages: World War II Plus 55
or http://davidhlippman.wildbillguarnere.com |