![]() While the British worried over the breakout of the Bismarck in Northern waters, Graf Zeppelin and several light cruisers made a carefully-planned, simultaneous dash through the English Channel to the South Atlantic. The Graf Zeppelin, on the other hand, had a long and glorious career in several oceans. In a sinking condition when the Lion caught up to her, the Strasser was sunk by 16" shells at point-blank range. The encounter ended in defeat for the Germans, and the damaged, nearly planeless, and retreating Strasser could neither outfight nor outrun the British hybrids. Though similar in appearance to the Dutch ship, this were actually the British Lion class of hybrid battleships with a more powerful armament and better armor, but with slightly fewer aircraft. The ship below was a strange configuration of carrier deck and large gun turrets, and was reported by the German pilots as the Dutch Molucca. Good Allied air cover prevented Strasser's aircraft from approaching the convoy, so they had to attack the nearest Allied ship or turn back. When the Strasser headed into the North Sea with the main German battlefleet to intercept a Murmansk-bound convoy, the Allied fleet was ready. Peter Strasser fought the Soviet Navy and her aircraft scored multiple hits on the battlecruiser Tretij Internacional in the Baltic. In the year between her sister's first appearance and her own, the "Happy Time" of easy German naval successes had passed, and the production of Allied warships had far surpassed the ability of the Germans to keep up. The Peter Strasser is nearly identical, though she will complete a year later. Still, she heads a few degrees to starboard of upwind when landing on aircraft to keep vortexes from developing in the landing pattern. Her island is more compact but command-friendly and reasonably aerodynamic. The old accellerator trolleys of early days are replaced with powerful hydraulic catapults using an American-type aircraft attachment. Her aircraft, combining German technology and Japanese expertise, are the premier naval aircraft in Europe and equal to those of the Pacific powers, though still far fewer in number. Realizing that her greatest asset is her aircraft and her greatest threat comes from enemy aircraft, the Kriegsmarine equips GZ with dozens of dual-purpose or single-purpose AA guns in open hull casemates and island mountings, and dispenses with the cruiser guns of her hybrid predecessors Graf Fitti, Seydlitz, and Pommern. Germany now has a class of large "Fleet" carriers to go with the other gunships that the "Z-Plan" had envisioned. In "Grand Fleet" the rough edges of the beginnings of naval aviation for the Kriegsmarine have been smoothed over by the time the Graf Zeppelin class of aircraft carriers is completed. (A drawing of the "real" Graf Zeppelin, studded with light cruiser guns, is used for the story of Pommern.) Realistically, though, the original Graf Zeppelin paled in comparison to the USS Enterprise, another 1938 ship of similar (roughly 19,000) tonnage, in everything but speed. Still, the British had done wonders with the seemingly antiquated aircraft operating from old WW I converted large cruisers like Furious and especially the larger, more modern armored carriers like Illustrious. The aircraft slated for her were of world standard but mere mediocre conversions of land planes, and too few in number to be very effective. A few more like her, plus some good escort ships, may have made a credible threat to the Royal Navy. Though handy to have, the Graf Zeppelin by herself would have added little to the weak navy of the Third Reich. ![]() If she had completed on time, perhaps she could have sortied with Bismarck and Prinz Eugen and fended off the crucial air attack that crippled the Bismarck and led to her demise. The Graf Zeppelin languished with half-hearted effort to build her, and she was never completed. Germany's second-in-command, Hermann Göring, was the architect of the world's most powerful and advanced Air Force, but he sadly neglected his Naval Air Arm. The real Graf Zeppelin (19,000 tons standard) was launched with much fanfare in 1938, heralding a potential new era of the Kriegsmarine that included a Fleet air component to bring it up to the standards of the world's air-minded navies.
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