Author: Crazy Lee
As early as the period of the Second German Empire, people of insight in the German Navy had already set their sights on the new type of aircraft carrier. Less than half a year after the end of the Battle of Jutland, the relevant construction plans were put on the agenda of the German Navy.
Initially, the German Admiralty intended to retrofit the already obsolete armored cruisers Ron and light cruisers Stuttgart. However, the German Admiralty soon rejected this plan, because the conversion of two warships with certain combat effectiveness into experimental warships with unknown combat effectiveness was somewhat violent. Eventually, the two warships received limited modifications and took part-time jobs as seaplane carriers.
Count Alfred von Tirpitz, the true founder of the Second Reich High Seas Fleet
Specialized aircraft carriers were replaced by the ferry Essonia ordered by the italians in Germany before the war. The ferry, which was halted due to the outbreak of World War I, had a fairly good foundation (12,500 tons at full load and 21 knots) by the standards of civilian ships. With reasonable modifications, it should be able to perform the task of a carrier cruiser and become a member of the German high seas fleet.
However, how to modify it has become a problem that German ship engineers have to face. Because this is a completely new ship, there is no experience to learn from. The German engineers didn't have a headache for long because the ship came too late.
The transformation began in January 1918, and ten months later, in November 1918, Germany surrendered in defeat ... In 1922, the ship was sold to a German company for demolition, and the key boilers and main engines were installed on other ships. Compared to the high seas fleet that died under the "rainbow" of Scarpa Bay, this ending is not known whether it is lucky or sad.
The battlecruiser Delflinger, which is about to sink
The story of the German Navy and the aircraft carrier is over for the time being. In 1929, the development of aircraft carriers was launched again. In that year , the Parliament of the Weimar Republic approved a funding scheme for two " aircraft cruisers " . Now it seems that this plan is more of a response to the stimulus of Poland and France at that time, and it is a bit of a gamble.
So when the situation eased, the plan was quickly canceled, and the relevant funds were used for the construction of the German-class pocket battleship III. In this plan, the only gain of the German Navy is that the potential value of the aircraft carrier is recognized by the decision-making level, and there is a certain accumulation of "psychology".
A few years later, with the rise of the Nazi Party, Germany's military spending exploded. In 1935, with the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, it became reasonable for the German Navy to rearm. All this gave Hope to Raeder, who was in charge of the German Navy, and a plan to reorganize the Navy was put on the agenda. In this plan, aircraft carriers have become a very key part of this plan.
Raeder, German Admiral
The problem is that Germany has no idea how to develop aircraft carriers. It is not surprising that Germany's time as a naval power was too short and lacked corresponding accumulation. The rise of the High Seas Fleet was in fact a parody of the British Royal Navy, and with the lessons of the First World War, the British would certainly have left a hand on Germany, and indeed it was.
Fortunately, Japan and Germany have become allies for various reasons, and the Japanese combined fleet has become an object that the German navy can learn from. At that time, the combined fleet accumulated a lot in the development and use of aircraft carriers. The first specially built aircraft carrier in the history of the world's navies was the Fengxiang of the Combined Fleet.
In the summer of 1935, a German delegation of 25 people came to Japan. To the surprise of the Japanese, the Germans did not first inspect the larger tonnage of Akagi and Kaga, but were more interested in the much smaller Ryūkyū. As an aircraft carrier, the Longjun has a displacement of only 8,000 tons, but carries as many as 48 aircraft. What's even crazier is that Japanese engineers put down a double-decker hangar and 12 127mm anti-aircraft guns in this small body plate, but the speed is comparable to that of the American Commando. This small, heavily armed line of thinking is very much in line with the practical needs of the Germans.
The aircraft carrier Ryūryu in modern paintings
But the next thing that forced the Germans to change their minds. In September of that year, the joint fleet encountered a typhoon during the confrontation exercise, the bows of two destroyers were cut off by large waves, the bridges of four destroyers and the decks of two aircraft carriers were damaged, and cracks appeared on several warships... Among these two aircraft carriers was the Ryūjō, which the Germans were very optimistic about.
Considering the sea conditions in the North Sea, the German delegation concluded that small aircraft carriers were not suitable for their own needs, and medium and heavy aircraft carriers were the needs of the German Navy. So the focus of the expedition shifted to the Akagi aircraft carrier.
The Akagi did not have reservations about the Germans, the expedition took a thorough look at the ship, and also obtained relevant information on the weight of 1 ton, and some of the design details of Akagi also impressed the Germans. What's more, the way the Japanese showed them to operate on the carriers gave them an idea of how to operate an aircraft carrier. Through this expedition, Germany's aircraft carrier construction is really on the right track.
In November 1935, the German Admiralty signed a contract with the Deutsche Shipyard for the construction of ships A and B. However, due to the fact that the originally planned platform was occupied by the battlecruiser Gneisenau, the first keel was not laid until December 28, 1936. In order to wait for the A ship, the construction progress of the earlier B ship was also deliberately slowed down. At the same time, some supporting work, such as aircraft blocking systems, lift construction and experiments, are also steadily advancing.
Due to the lack of relevant construction experience, the progress of the project was seriously delayed, and it was not until December 8, 1938, that the ship A was launched. Although there are many problems, the launch of this big guy has a very important political significance: the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany have been completely broken, and Germany has returned to the ranks of the world's naval powers...
Battlecruiser GINESENAU
To commemorate this moment, Hitler led a group of Nazi military and political leaders to the launch ceremony. After the launch, the outfitting of the Zeppelin proceeded very smoothly, and the degree of completion was as high as 80%. But it was still too late, and a few months later, on September 1, 1939, As nazi German tanks overwhelmed the Polish lines, World War II officially broke out in Europe.
As the war progressed, the construction process was greatly affected, and Zeppelin's sister ships were directly ordered to stop work. A lot of manpower and material resources that should have been used for aircraft carrier construction were transferred to the construction of U-boats that were more effective. In October, priority for U-boats was raised to the highest level, most of the construction of new large ships was cancelled, and only five large ships under construction, including Zeppelin, were allowed to continue construction.
Soon, things changed again. In 1940, with a series of German operations in Scandinavia, small and medium-sized ships became the most needed thing for the Nazi Navy, and the construction of large ships was halted.
Imaginary completion of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier
Considering that the real completion of the Zeppelin would take at least 10 months, the outfitting was suspended in April 1940 and the naval guns and most of the anti-aircraft guns that had been installed were removed and ready to be transported to Norway to strengthen the defense. Although Hitler sometimes talked about this big ship, or similar ships, he stayed on the lips and did not put it into practice. Zeppelin was also hidden in a corner by the German Navy.
By 1941, as German armored forces fell under Moscow, blitzkrieg was de facto bankrupt on the Eastern Front, and the Germans were in the awkward position of the two-front operation they could hardly accept. The experience of the Battle of Britain showed that shore-based aviation was not enough to suppress the RAF, and the development of sea-based aviation was necessary.
In the months that followed, the astonishing record of several major air squadrons under the Japanese Combined Fleet in killing all sides in the Pacific and Indian Oceans shocked Hitler and the German naval leadership. Compared with the clumsy performance of his own navy, the Fuehrer's heart was once again wavering. In April 1942, Hitler held a special meeting to discuss the issue of aircraft carriers, and the meeting made bold demands on the progress of the project: at the end of 1943, the aircraft carrier reached the point where it could be used...
Japanese Shōzuru-class aircraft carrier
The beauty of imagination has never been able to resist the bone of reality, and as the situation continues to deteriorate, the Fuehrer has completely lost confidence in the surface ship force, and in January 1943, he angrily decided to retire all large surface ships and stop the construction of unfinished ships. The Zeppelin was eventually abandoned and was eventually abandoned in Stantin (present-day Szczecin, Poland) and slowly sank.
In April 1945, when the Red Army approached Stating, the big guy had been abandoned for two years, and the state was inexhaustible: the weapons and most of the auxiliary facilities had long been dismantled, the fire control system had not been installed at all, the electrical equipment and catapults had only been partially installed, and the carrier-based aircraft had been developed but eventually cancelled... Only the power system is still intact, and repairs and repairs can barely work. The control system is also basically complete, so that the ship is not a big problem.
The problems with the ships were not great, but the defeated Germans had no time or energy to solve them. The german navy's top commander on the ground chose to destroy the carrier in order not to fall into Soviet hands. Eventually, Germany's only aircraft carrier nearing completion sank to the bottom of the sea.
The story doesn't end there, though. In August, the ship was salvaged by the Soviets and sent home for testing. Until August 1947, in order to avoid tearing the face with the United States and Britain, the Soviets sank the ship as a target ship after completing the relevant mapping. In this process, the Soviet Union came into contact with the real aircraft carrier for the first time, and also obtained first-hand information on the aircraft carrier's ability to resist strikes, which can be described as a fruitful harvest.
Zeppelin's life can be described as full of twists and turns. The Germans' unreliable design concept doomed the ship. In the original plan, the Germans simply wanted to use him as an auxiliary ship for the broken ships, to prop up an aerial umbrella for the attack ships of the big guns of Bismarck and Tirpitz, and the wolves in the sea.
The problem is that even if it is actually put into use, its role is very limited. Because the British Royal Navy's large number of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers will smash this umbrella and everything under the umbrella. Interestingly, the Kiev-class aircraft cruisers later built by the Soviet Union adopted a similar approach. The difference is that in the Soviet system, nuclear submarines are the real protagonists.
The problem at the Kiev level, like that of Zeppelin, is ill-defined
In addition, Germany is mainly facing the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Both of these areas are relatively small, and many times shore-based aviation can cope with it. The development of aircraft carriers is somewhat of a waste of resources, so there will be a strange phenomenon that the war is progressing smoothly and the aircraft carriers are shut down. The result was an aircraft carrier launched at the end of 1938 and remained unfinished until 1943.
And the most fundamental thing is that the Germans are lost in naval strategy. I never know what I want and who my opponent is. Therefore, there have been repeated mistakes, but it is a pity that Zeppelin, a famous name that once shone in the history of aviation.