German Aircraft Carriers?

[10ClarionSt]

Why didn't Germany have aircraft carriers in WW2?

[goldenboy]

i assume that the germans did not need to have mobile airbases as they controlled much of europe. the royal navy was rather good so the germans invested money in subs to take them down. the japanese needed air bases in the pacific but the islands were too spread out to provide this so aircraft carriers seemed logical. well thats my interpretation anyway.

[KebabMeister]

Germany did start building the 'Graf Zeppelin' aircraft carrier but it was never completed.

Although this is a model making website, it does have some interesting history of this aircraft carrier and possible conversions of other ships to carrier status.

http://www.german-navy.de/smb/scalemodels/ships/grafzepp elin/history.html

[KebabMeister]

If the link doesn't work, remove the 'P' in brackets after html

[jemarris]

It's also worth considering that the Brits having invented the air craft carrier did so against current thinking, the battleship still being considered by most navies as the foremost capital ship, even the Japanese with their need for a long range strategy still invested in the building of what was then the most powerful battleship in the world (the Yamato).

[Paul22118]

One needs to look at the strategy of the German high command to understand why there was a lack of aircraft carriers. Quite rightly, as has been said, the occupied land in Europe alone meant that the Germans could use aircraft with a short range and keep that 'strike' capacity. Look at how the European countries fell? France for example was thought to be a major player with a huge armed force yet it fell within six weeks. It did so because of the quick striking ability of the newly equipped Panzer troops. They moved quickly and struck with speed and surprise. It is an overall strategy they believed in. Relate that to the sea and you find lightweight cruisers and U boats. Submarines that would slip through defences and cruisers that could outpace many surface craft. If they wished to attack London by air they used sites in Northern France. If they wished to patrol and cause havoc in the Atlantic the Wolf Packs could stealthily assemble and struck like a multi headed missile. Aircraft carriers were outside this shere of thinking and that is why they had none. It begs the question though - "If Germany had a carrier strategy, having seen the way they built pocket battle ships, whaty would they have been like - awesome."

Thank God for Bletchley........

[KebabMeister]

The only aircraft that Germany had 'ready' for use on carriers was the Me109T which is a very light fighter. Whether they'd have had light torpedo/bombers available as well I really don't know.

[gary baldy]

Part of the Treaty of Verseilles was a limit to the size of ship the German navy could build (they invented the pocket battleship to get round this- and submarines were below the size limit). Although Germany pretty much ignored the Treaty after 1936 i suppose the long timescale for designing and building an aircraft carrier,coupled with the rapid invasion of Europe, meant that by the outbreak of war they didnt really need one.

[mike b]

There were actually a couple more aircraft types earmarked for the Graf Zeppelin: the Fieseler 167, biplane torpedo bomber perhaps comparable to the Fairey Albacore, and a carrier version of the Ju 87, which among other adaptations could jettison its fixed undercarriage in case of ditching.