Without wings, the story of Hitler’s aircraft carrier

The keel for this, the largest of Hitler’s warships was laid in 1936.

When war came in 1939, Graf Zeppelin was almost complete...

...but lacking knowledge of carrier operations, work on the carrier was put on hold, the ship being taken under tow to Poland.

Graf Zeppelin would spend much of her war exiled in Polish waters...

...a belated decision in 1942 to finish the carrier coming too late to influence events in the Atlantic.

The fortunes of war had now turned against Hitler’s navy...

...one by one his surface fleet was destroyed...

Graf Zeppelin’s destruction would come at the hands of Soviet naval and air forces...

...the ship sinking in the Baltic Sea.

Lost for 60 years beneath the cold dark waters of the Baltic , Graf Zeppelin was located in 2006, lying almost intact.

To read more about the coming expedition to the wreck site and the subsequent exploration of the Graf Zeppelin follow my blog at: www.withoutwingsonline.co.uk