CONTENTS

GERMANY
• Introduction
• German seaplane carriers, 1914–18
• German aircraft carrier project SMS Ausonia, 1918
• Flush-deck aircraft carriers and Plan Z
• Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers
• German carrier aircraft
• Messerschmitt Bf 109T “Toni”
• Fieseler Fi 167A
• Junkers Ju 87C and E “Trägerstukas”
• Messerschmitt Me 155
• Wartime auxiliary carrier conversion projects

ITALY
• Experimentation in World War I
• Interwar projects
• Aquila
• Sparviero
• Bolzano

CONCLUSION
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
GERMAN AND ITALIAN
AIRCRAFT CARRIERS OF
WORLD WAR II
GERMANY
Introduction
Although the field of aviation was still in its infancy, by the beginning of
World War I the leadership of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial
Navy) possessed a forward-thinking vision of the strategic use of naval
aviation. Long-range reconnaissance and naval mine detection, coupled with
the new technology of radio communication, were two strategic tasks which
German naval planners quickly realized could be accomplished from the air,
giving the Kaiserliche Marine an unprecedented over-the-horizon capability.
The primary technological medium initially selected for these tasks was the
rigid airship, or dirigible, and the Kaiserliche Marine invested significantly in
its development; more than 80 dirigibles were constructed by the
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin and Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz companies for the
Kaiserliche Marine from 1912 to 1918. The preference for the dirigible over
heavier-than-air aircraft throughout the first half of the war was
technologically myopic in hindsight, but the long-range and combat
capabilities of naval aircraft were minimal at best for much of the war. The
short range of early float and sea planes, their limited armament and payload,
and their inability to operate in inclement weather were some of the reasons
the Kaiserliche Marine did not heavily invest in seaplane carriers and tenders.
Another reason was that its handful of seaplane tenders, as well as those of
the British Royal Navy and the French Marine Nationale, were converted
from merchant vessels which did not possess the speeds sufficient to operate
with battle fleets. Lastly, the Marinenachrichtendienst (Naval Intelligence
Service) followed the troubled development and operations of HMS
Campania, the Royal Navy’s first ship with a practical flight deck; its
relatively unsuccessful service from 1915 to 1917 convinced German
admirals that such projects did not warrant further research and development.

German seaplane carriers, 1914–18

Entering World War I, Großadmiral (Grand Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz,
head of the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Naval Office), and the “big gun”
battleship admirals of the Kaiserliche Marine’s Hochseeflotte (High Seas
Fleet) were counting on Ferdinand Graf (Count) von Zeppelin’s dirigible
airships for long-range maritime surveillance, fleet reconnaissance, and
bombing operations. While potentially effective in these roles, the huge slow
airships were unable to provide timely tactical reconnaissance for smaller
forces operating primarily in the Baltic Sea.

The Kaiserliche Marine seaplane carrier SMS Santa Elena, assigned to Germany’s Baltic
Fleet and capable of operating four float biplanes (two from each side), seen here with the
starboard hangars open and six Friedrichshafen FF.33 two-seat reconnaissance floatplanes
visible. (Ryan Noppen Collection)

Consequently, towards the end of 1914, the Kaiserliche Marine authorized

the modification of the captured British merchantman Glyndwr to embark
and employ up to four floatplanes (two carried aft on the aft well deck, with
two more stored in the holds) by lowering them into the water for take-off.
The modifications were completed, and the 6,000-ton ship was commissioned
into the Kaiser’s navy as an “auxiliary seaplane carrier” in December 1914.
However, it was severely damaged by mines six months later while returning
from a seaplane raid on a Russian factory on the coast of the Gulf of Riga and
was never fully repaired or returned to service as an active seaplane carrier.
Nevertheless, the Glyndwr’s operations were encouraging enough for three
more merchantmen to be made into auxiliary seaplane carriers. The first two
were the 13,900-ton Answald and the 13,200-ton Santa Elena, both
commissioned in July 1915, after conversion by Danzig Kaiserliche Werft.
Modifications included being fitted with hangars and hoisting booms fore and
aft of the central superstructure with two 3.4cm/45cal antiaircraft (AA) guns
mounted on the fo’c’sle and stern. Each ship operated four reconnaissance
floatplanes – looking for Russian naval vessels – for the Baltic Fleet.
These operations were successful enough to warrant augmenting the pair
with a third seaplane carrier, and the interned British-built 7,640-ton
merchantman Oswestry, which had already been taken over by the Imperial
Navy as a depot ship, was modified at Danzig during the first half of 1918
and commissioned as SMS Oswald that July. Its conversion was similar to
the Answald, resulting in its carrying four floatplanes and mounting two
antiaircraft guns.

The Wölfchen (Wolf Cub), the Friedrichshafen FF.33 reconnaissance floatplane, operated
from the commerce raider Wolf. Operating in the vast Pacific and Indian Oceans, the
Wölfchen proved invaluable in locating potential prey for the raider, resulting in a highly
successful cruise. (Ryan Noppen Collection)

The most successful shipboard seaplane operation was by the Kaiserliche

Marine’s Hilfskreuzer (auxiliary cruiser) and commerce raider SMS Wolf.
Well-disguised, the 11,200-ton armed merchantman departed Kiel in
November 1916 for a 15-month, 64,000-mile (103,000km) cruise during
which it operated primarily in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, laying 465
mines near Gibraltar, Cape Town, Ceylon, Bombay, Australia, and New
Zealand. Using a Friedrichshafen FF.33e two-seat seaplane, nicknamed
“Wölfchen” (Wolf Cub), to scour the vast ocean, it located, seized, and sank
14 Allied ships, totaling 38,391GRT, using its six 15cm (5.9in) guns and four
torpedo tubes. Its mines sank another 13 ships, grossing a further
75,888GRT.
The Wolf was, by far, the most successful German commerce raider of
World War I, returning home with 467 prisoners and substantial quantities of
rubber, copper, zinc, brass, silk, copra, cocoa, and other essential materials
taken from its prizes. The Wölfchen and its two intrepid airmen, Leutnant zur
See Matthaus Stein, and Oberflugmeister Paul Fabeck, contributed to this
success, making 30 operational flights, scouting for British warships,
ensuring potential anchorages were secure, and locating five of the prizes
seized. Following the cruise, the Wolf – like the three seaplane carriers –
operated in the Baltic Sea.
Meanwhile, over the North Sea at the end of May 1916, Zeppelin’s
dirigibles failed to locate the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet, resulting in the
German High Seas Fleet blundering into the Battle of Jutland. This
highlighted the need for timely and effective over-the-horizon aerial scouting
for naval forces. The Baltic-based converted merchantmen “auxiliary
seaplane carriers” could not keep pace with the much faster heavy battle units
so an elderly scouting cruiser – the Jutland-veteran 4,000-ton SMS Stuttgart
– was modified into a “cruiser seaplane carrier” embarking two floatplanes in
a hangar mounted abaft the funnels with a third carried atop the “hangar
box.” It was completed in May 1918; by this time the High Seas Fleet was
sequestered in port waiting for the end of the war and the Stuttgart saw no
further action.

A
1. Designed Aircraft Carrier SMS Ausonia
SMS Ausonia was originally laid down as a 12,585-ton, turbine-powered ocean liner in
the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg in 1914 for the Italian Società Italiana di
Servizi Marittimi. According to its 1918 conversion plans, Ausonia was to have been
equipped with a 30m take-off deck fore, connected to an upper hangar deck running
amidships aft; land-based fighters would have taken off directly from the hangar deck.
Above the upper hangar deck was a 128.5m landing deck, intended for the ship’s
complement of land-based aircraft. Beneath the take-off deck and upper hangar was a
lower hangar deck where floatplanes would have been stored. Floatplanes were to have
been lowered by cranes, via side doors along the lower hangar deck, onto the sea and
likewise retrieved. In this manner, Ausonia was designed to function as both a proper
aircraft carrier and a seaplane carrier. A particularly innovative feature of Ausonia’s
conversion design was a small island, located on the starboard side, to house the
bridge and a flight operations center. Ausonia is shown here as planned as well as an
Albatros D.V fighter in the colors of Marine Feld Jasta I.
2. Europa Aircraft Carrier Conversion Project
When the Kriegsmarine reactivated its aircraft carrier program in the spring of 1942,
designers first looked towards ocean liners as potential candidates for conversion; by
this time both the Italian Regia Marina and the Imperial Japanese Navy had begun
converting ocean liners into aircraft carriers, with the Italian Aquila and Japanese Hiyo
and Junyo being designated as fleet carriers. Norddeutscher Lloyd’s largest and fastest
liner, Europa, initially seemed like a natural choice for conversion, particularly given the
vessel’s size and speed. Unfortunately for the Kriegsmarine, Europa would have
required substantial and lengthy structural modifications, reducing its maximum speed
to what would have been unsuitable for operations alongside the Kriegsmarine’s
remaining capital ships. As a result, consideration towards converting Europa was
dropped relatively quickly. Europa is shown here based upon its preliminary conversion
design as well as the Junkers Ju 87E.
 All five of the Kaiserliche Marine’s seaplane carriers were surrendered to
the Allies as war reparations, the Wolf going to France, the Santa Elena to the
USA, and the other three to Great Britain. While the German navy would
have to start from scratch building aircraft and seaplane carriers for the next
war, these ships provided invaluable experience for ships and flight crews in
handling aircraft from vessels at sea.

While the Kaiserliche Marine’s small seaplane carriers were adequate for operations in the
Baltic Sea, the High Seas Fleet needed much faster vessels that could provide over-the-
horizon aerial reconnaissance while keeping pace with the main battle group of powerful high-
speed battleships. Shown here is SMS Stuttgart. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 134-B3828 /
Fotograf(in): o.Ang.)

German aircraft carrier project SMS Ausonia, 1918

By the end of 1917, the capabilities of aircraft had increased dramatically
since the summer of 1914 and the vulnerabilities of hydrogen-filled dirigibles
were becoming all too apparent. Several land-based aircraft and floatplane
types now possessed the capability to serve in a long-range reconnaissance
role as well as having a payload that permitted the carrying of aerial
torpedoes. Due to this and the need for further aerial reconnaissance and mine
searching for the High Seas Fleet during offensive operations, in early 1918
the Reichsmarineamt (the German Imperial Naval Office) pushed for the
development of Flugzeugmutterschiffe (aircraft mother ships) which had the
speed necessary to keep up with fleet units but also could carry a sizeable
aircraft complement. Two older ocean liners from the Norddeutscher Lloyd,
Bremen and Königin Luise, were considered for conversion to large seaplane
carriers as they were large enough to carry and operate ten aircraft, but their
maximum speed of 15kt could not be appreciably increased. In October 1918,
the Reichsmarineamt decided that the hull of the Italian ocean liner SS
Ausonia, sitting unfinished in the Blohm & Voss yards in Hamburg since
being launched in 1915, was a suitable candidate for conversion into an
aircraft carrier with a proper flight deck, largely due to its projected speed of
21kt.
Ausonia specifications

Dimensions length: 158m; beam: 18.8m; draft: 7.4m

Full 12,585 tons

displacement

Machinery two Blohm & Voss geared turbines producing 18,000shp and driving two screws at a maximum
speed of 21kt

Aircraft ten land-based fighters and up to 19 floatplanes

Albatros D.V specifications

Dimensions length: 7.3m

wingspan: 9m

Powerplant 200hp Mercedes D.IIIaü inline engine

Maximum speed 186km/h

Range 350 km

Ceiling 5,700m

Armament two 7.92 mm Spandau MG 08 machine guns

This proposal came from the dissertation of a junior officer, submitted to the
Technische Hochschule Berlin in the autumn of 1918, and possessed design
elements used on the Royal Navy’s first aircraft carriers, HMS Argus and
Furious. But the war abruptly ended in November 1918 before any realistic
consideration could be given to the Ausonia project. Consequently, the
concept of an aircraft carrier went dormant in Germany for the next 17 years.
 Ordered in 1914, the SS Ausonia was to be a fast 12,500-ton turbine-powered passenger
steamer being built for the Italian Società Italiana di Servizi Marittimi. by Blohm & Voss
shipyards. The design envisaged its conversion into an aircraft carrier capable of embarking
either 13 fixed-wing or 19 folding-wing reconnaissance floatplanes, plus about ten wheeled
fighter aircraft. The project was stillborn and the Ausonia was canceled in 1920, being sold to
shipbreakers two years later. (Ryan Noppen Collection)

Flush-deck aircraft carriers and Plan Z

Two years after Adolf Hitler seized power (Machtergreifung) in Germany he
enabled the rapid expansion of the newly established Kriegsmarine (War
Navy) by signing the Anglo-German Naval Agreement with Great Britain in
June 1935, obtaining Britain’s permission to ignore the restrictive naval
provisions of the Versailles Treaty and embark upon a massive construction
program constrained only by the agreed limit of 35 percent of the Royal
Navy’s tonnage in all warship classes.
Heading the Oberkommando der Marine (High Command of the Navy or
OKM), Admiral Erich Raeder cataloged the planned expansion of his navy in
that year’s Schiffbauersatzplan (Ship Building Plan) Phase II (1936–43),
requesting the Reichstag approve the construction of two heavily armored
35,000-ton battleships mounting 15in guns (this pair became the dreaded
Bismarck and Tirpitz), two 23,000-ton aircraft carriers (Flugzeugträger A and
B), and three 10,000-ton heavy cruisers. These were to augment the two
26,000-ton, 11in gun battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and two
heavy cruisers being completed under Phase I (1932–35).
 When it became obvious that Hitler was intent on starting a second
European war, Raeder realized that he and his OKM staff had to devise a
naval strategy to effectively counter Britain’s Royal Navy and develop an
aggressive shipbuilding program to implement it. Begun as “Plan X,” the
strategy was to dispatch several surface raiders such as the service’s fast,
light, heavily armed Panzerschiffe (“armored ships,” sensationalized as
“pocket battleships” by the British press) to tie up Royal Navy heavy units
around the globe so that the Kriegsmarine’s inferior numbers of capital ships
could operate successfully in the North Sea. The “breakout” into the North
Atlantic by the armored cruisers, as well as newly designed light cruisers,
would be assisted by two task forces, each consisting of a pair of battleships
and an aircraft carrier.
The final iteration of the OKM’s proposed shipbuilding program – “Plan
Z” – called for the construction, by 1947, of six 56,000-ton 16in gun H-class
battleships, three 29,000-ton 15in gun O-class battlecruisers, seven commerce
raiding M-class light cruisers to augment the service’s three Panzerschiffe,
and two additional small 12,000-ton aircraft carriers (Flugzeugträger C and
D) to provide increased air cover. Raeder’s Plan Z was approved by Hitler in
March 1939.
Six months later Hitler started World War II, forcing Raeder and his
Kriegsmarine to fight with what they had.

Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers

Flugzeugträger A (Airplane Carrier A), Germany’s first real aircraft carrier,
was originally designed by the Kriegsmarine’s Kriegsschiffbauamt (Warship
Construction Bureau or K-Amt) under the direction of the naval chief
architect, engineer Wilhelm Hadeler, in the winter of 1933–34. Designed
from the keel up as a 20,000-ton through-deck fleet carrier, it was intended to
embark 50–60 aircraft, make 33kt and – in a concession to the “big gun”
naval leaders – mount eight 8in guns and have the armor and interior
protection of a light cruiser.
 Construction of the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin began on December 28, 1936,
signaling the Kriegsmarine’s intent of providing its battle fleet with an aerial strike and air
defense capability. It was up to the Luftwaffe to develop the aircraft, train the crews, and form
the units of a Trägergruppe (carrier [air] group). (Douglas Dildy Collection)

The designers had made a thorough study of the HMS Courageous – at

that time considered the state of the art in carrier development – and toured
HMS Furious during “Navy Week” at Portsmouth in 1935. Additionally, a
three-man K-Amt team visited the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Akagi – a
vessel very similar to the two Royal Navy carriers in origin and configuration
– that autumn. The Japanese provided about 100 plans and diagrams,
including blueprints, regarding the flight system – catapults, arresting gear,
and elevators – and motivated Hadeler’s team to add the third elevator
amidships. Overall, these visits provided little new or additional information
but they at least confirmed the direction upon which Hadeler and his staff of
naval architects were embarking.
The ship’s design embodied traditional German naval concepts: high
freeboard to enhance seakeeping in the rough Atlantic and North Sea
conditions, a powerful propulsion plant to maximize speed, and a strong
defensive armament to fend off surface and aerial attackers. While superior
speed would enable the carrier to outrun any British capital ship, the hull-
mounted 20.3cm (8in) SK C/34 guns would effectively counter Royal Navy
cruisers. The ship’s vitals were to be protected by a 4in belt amidships,
tapering to 3in forward and aft, with deck armor, one deck below the hangars,
of 1.5in and 0.75in for the flight deck. The anticipated air threat was
medium/high-altitude level bombers, so a battery of five twin 10.5cm (4.1in)
SK C/33 turrets – two forward and three aft of the long, low island and the
large funnel – were included, supplemented by 29 smaller-caliber automatic
weapons for close-in defense. Hadeler calculated the ship would actually
displace 24,500 tons and be capable of 35kt top speed.

KMS Graf Zeppelin was launched on December 8, 1938, amid huge fanfare and some 15,000
spectators, including Hitler, Göring, and Raeder. That same day the Luftwaffe announced the
formation of the ship’s Trägergruppe 186, although at that time it consisted of only one Bf
109E and one Ju 87B squadron. (US Navy Photo NH78305)

By 1936, the design was well enough developed to be included in ‘Plan Z’

and the Reich’s budget that year and a second carrier of the same design –
Flugzeugträger B – was included in the 1938 budget. On November 16,
1936, Deutsche Werke Kiel AG shipyard was awarded the contract to build
the ship and on December 28, less than three weeks after the brand-new 11in
battlecruiser Gneisenau was launched from Slipway 1, the keel of hull “K-
252” was laid in its place. Almost exactly two years later – on December 8,
1938 – the shiny flat-topped hull of the Kriegsmarine’s newest warship slid
down the ways and into the water.
When launched the German aircraft carrier was the longest – and largest in terms of volume –
ship built in Europe. It measured 844ft (257.3m) and had a flight deck 800ft (243.8m) long.
After launch, the Graf Zeppelin was towed to the “equipping pier” where its outfitting – building
the ship’s superstructure and adding its weapons, catapults, arresting gear, and other
machinery and equipment – was begun. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H16145 / Fotograf(in):
o.Ang.)

Christened the KMS Graf Zeppelin by Ferdinand’s daughter, Hella Gräfin

(Countess) von Brandenstein-Zeppelin, before Hitler, Raeder, Göring, and
15,000 spectators, after launching, the (now) 27,030-ton warship was towed
to the shipyard’s “equipping pier” for completion. There its builders added its
island, funnel, and masts, and mounted its 17ft (5.2m) long “Atlantic prow.”
Comparing favorably to the Royal Navy’s 27,700-ton HMS Ark Royal, its
800ft (243.8m) long flight deck was 97ft (29.6m) wide and sat 51ft (15.6m)
above the waterline. The carrier had a beam of 88.6ft (27m), before anti-
torpedo bulges were added, and a draft of 25ft (7.6m). It was powered by 16
oil-fired ultra-high-pressure boilers feeding four Brown, Boveri & Cie.
(BBC) 50,000shp geared turbines, turning four four-bladed 14.4-ft (4.4m)
diameter screws. The powerplant was very similar to that installed in the
battlecruiser Scharnhorst, that vessel using three BBC steam turbines to
produce 165,930shp, giving the 38,700-ton warship a maximum speed of
31.5kt. At an operational displacement of 29,720 tons, Graf Zeppelin was
calculated to have a 34.5kt top speed, enough to keep pace with the
Kriegsmarine’s fastest warships regardless of type or class and could cruise
6500nmi at 19kt.
Outfitting the ship was full of fits and starts because the design evolved as
construction continued, resulting in seemingly interminable delays. The day
Hitler invaded Poland (September 1, 1939) and started World War II, the
carrier was considered 85 per cent complete. By this time, its main antiship
armament had been changed to sixteen 15cm (5.9in) L/55 SK C/28 guns
paired in casemate-mounted turrets, two forward and two aft on each side,
sufficient to fend off enemy destroyers.

At the “equipping pier,” workers added the island, funnel, and masts topside while weapons,
catapults, arresting gear, and other machinery and equipment were installed. In April 1939,
the builders began adding the Kriegsmarine’s distinctive “Atlantic prow,” increasing the
carrier’s length to 861ft (262.5m). Work continued for the first eight months, but the initiation of
World War II resulted in the Kriegsmarine’s priorities quickly changing to producing U-boats.
(Bundesarchiv, RM 25 Bild-60 / Fotograf(in): o.Ang.)

Adopting the Imperial Japanese Navy practice, the carrier’s warplanes

were to be fueled and armed on the hangar decks and brought up to the flight
deck for launching, so the flight deck was fitted with three center-line
elevators, forward, amidships, and aft. These had “clipped corners,” resulting
in a roughly octagonal shape, measuring 46ft (14m) wide by 42.7ft (13m)
long. The Reichsluftfahrtministerium (Reich Air Ministry or RLM) was
required to design aircraft which would, of course, fit within these
dimensions.

By June 1940, when this photo was taken, the Graf Zeppelin was 90 per cent complete. All
propulsion machinery had been installed, as had the hull-mounted 15cm (5.9in) guns – here
the forward port weapons can be seen aimed broadside from their casemates – and the base
for the bow twin 3.7cm Flak gun mounting. There was still much work to be done but the
construction was more or less on schedule for commissioning in December. (Bundesarchiv,
RM 25 Bild-62 / Fotograf(in): o.Ang.)

At the bow, the flight deck incorporated two compressed air catapults, each
with “runs” 77ft (23.5m) long. Developed by Heinkel, the carrier’s catapult
system used “launching sleds” (also called “cars”) where an aircraft taxied
onto the sled’s cradle, then the catapult would sling the aircraft into the air.
Operating at up to 881.75psi, the compressed air catapults were designed to
launch a 5,500lb (2,268kg) fighter (the Bf 109E weighed 5,600lb/2,540kg) at
87mph (140km/h) or a 11,000lb (4,989kg) bomber (a loaded Ju 87B weighed
11,023lb/5,300kg) at 81mph (130km/h). At the end of the “run,” the sled
came to an abrupt halt – literally “throwing” the airplane into the air – and
was then shunted sideways onto below-deck return rails, to be raised into
position for the next launch. Hadeler’s K-Amt designers estimated the ship
could launch eight aircraft in three and a half minutes using this system.
Aft, four DEMAG cross-deck aircraft-arresting wires were fitted to bring
landing aircraft to a halt. Set about 10in above the deck, the continuous
cables were connected to electric winches located portside on A-deck, which
acted as dynamos, supplying resistance that was able to stop landing aircraft
within 72–105ft (23–32m) with a deceleration of 2.2 to 2.6G. Once the cable
was “unhooked,” the winches retracted the wire within 12–15 turns of the
spool. Frictional brakes were provided as an emergency back-up to the cable
winches, and a pair of hydraulically-raised barriers – one each forward and
aft of the amidships elevator – was provided in case the aircraft’s hook
skipped over the wires.
Like Ark Royal, the German carrier had two hangar decks. The overall
hangar “box” measured 52ft (16m) between longitudinal bulkheads – the
upper hangar was 607ft (185m) long, minus space for funnel uptakes and
other ship’s equipment, and the lower one was 564ft (172m) long – and
together the two decks could accommodate approximately 43 aircraft,
depending on the combination of types to be embarked. By this point the
Luftwaffe had revised its desired complement to embark a dozen fighters and
about 30 reconnaissance and bombing aircraft. As the design matured, it was
planned that the upper hangar would house 13 Ju 87C Stuka dive bombers
forward and 12 Bf 109T fighters aft, while the smaller lower hangar was to
hold 18 Fi 167 reconnaissance/torpedo biplanes.
Pier-side at Kiel, Graf Zeppelin was due to be completed by October 1,
1940, and was scheduled for its sea trials that winter. However, with only a
year to go, work slowed once Hitler initiated hostilities because Raeder’s
unprepared navy was forced to turn to U-boat production in order to have any
strategic relevance in the conflict.
Meanwhile construction had begun in October 1938 on Flugzeugträger B,
its keel being laid by Friedrich Krupp Germania Shipyard in Kiel, with a
planned completion date of December 1941, but work was stopped on
September 19, 1939, and the project canceled. It was broken up beginning
February 28, 1940, so that the materials could be used in other projects.
Although repeatedly said to have been named the Peter Strasser, there is no
documentary evidence of this and in archival records the vessel is
consistently referred to as Flugzeugträger B.
 By January 1, 1941, high-flying RAF photographic reconnaissance aircraft had located Graf
Zeppelin moored to the dock at the former Polish Oksywie naval base at Gdynia (called
Gotenhafen by the Germans). Thought to be out of RAF bombers’ range it became a depot
ship for the Kriegsmarine’s lumber supplies, its “in storage” status being considered a
temporary condition. (IWM Photo MH 5813)

While its sole aircraft carrier languished incomplete at Kiel, in April 1940
the Kriegsmarine launched the invasion of Norway and Denmark, a strategic
move intended to expand the navy’s capability to control the North Sea. The
Raeder’s “Norwegian adventure” proved to be a very expensive undertaking:
one heavy and two light cruisers, ten destroyers, and six U-boats were lost.
Even worse, both 11in battlecruisers – KMS Gneisenau and Scharnhorst –
and the armored cruiser Lützow were seriously damaged, requiring months to
repair. Consequently, all dockyard facilities and as many shipyard workers as
possible were needed to fix the Nazis’ battered fleet.
With the aim of finishing Graf Zeppelin now eclipsed by the urgency to
repair his damaged battlecruisers as well as complete the new 15in battleships
Bismarck and Tirpitz, Raeder ordered work on the carrier suspended for the
time being. The ship’s 15cm (5.9in) SK C/28 guns were removed and sent to
Norway to arm new coastal batteries and its flak guns were distributed
elsewhere. The completion date had slipped to January 1941 (at the earliest)
with another 12 months of sea trials and training before the warship would be
combat-ready.
 With its engine room equipment also not yet operational, on July 6, 1940
Graf Zeppelin was towed out of Kiel harbor, headed for Gdynia, Poland
(called Gotenhafen by the conquering Germans), a move intended to put the
carrier into storage out of range of RAF bombers. Not quite out of range, the
Royal Air Force (RAF) attempted a nighttime low-altitude precision bombing
attack by nine Lancasters – each carrying one 5,500lb (2,495kg) Capital Ship
Bomb – on the night of August 27–28, 1942. Such a mission was beyond the
RAF’s capabilities and no hits were scored. Turned into a depot ship for the
Kriegsmarine’s lumber supplies, the Graf Zeppelin languished at Gdynia for
almost a year.
Anticipating the launching of Hitler’s long-awaited invasion of the USSR
on June 22, 1941, Raeder had the carrier towed once again, this time
westwards to Stettin (now Poland’s Szczecin) to place it out of range of
Soviet bombers, mooring pier-side the day before the Panzers rolled. When
Hitler’s over-ambitious campaign to crush the Soviet Union in 1941
(Operation Barbarossa) stalled approaching Moscow, Leningrad, and
Rostov-on-Don, the Eastern Front became an overriding obsession for the
Führer.

In anticipation of Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, in June 1941 the Graf Zeppelin was
moved to the Kriegsmarine’s dock at Stettin (now Szczercin, Poland) naval base. The months
of neglect were beginning to show their effects on the once resplendent hull of the Nazis’ only
aircraft carrier. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 134-B0676 / Fotograf(in): o.Ang.)

Once the USA joined the European conflict on December 11, it became
patently obvious to Hitler that forays into the North Atlantic by Kriegsmarine
surface combatants had become too risky to undertake. This was because the
Royal Navy’s Home Fleet was now joined by the US Navy’s Atlantic Fleet,
which included three 14in battleships (USS Arkansas, New York, and Texas)
as well as two aircraft carriers (USS Ranger and Wasp), ensuring much
greater protection of the growing numbers of large convoys streaming across
the North Atlantic to Britain.

Graf Zeppelin in the 40,000-ton floating drydock at Kiel, seen after the completion of its
counter-poise bulges. In addition to correcting the ship’s list, these afforded additional
antitorpedo/mine protection and provided extra fuel tankage, extending the carrier’s range by
about 1,500nmi. (Bundesarchiv, RM 25 Bild-64 / Fotograf(in): o.Ang.)

Instead, Hitler reasoned, the Kriegsmarine’s battleships and cruisers could

be better used interdicting the Allies’ lifeline to the Soviet Union, which
passed through the Norwegian Sea to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. Raeder’s
remaining battleship – Bismarck had been lost during Operation Rheinübung
(Rhine Exercise) in May 1941 – the KMS Tirpitz had been positioned near
Trondheim, Norway, on January 16, 1942 and, following Operation Cerberus
(the famous “Channel Dash” on February 11–13) was joined by heavy cruiser
Prinz Eugen and armored cruiser Admiral Scheer early the next month. The
mighty Nazi battleship’s first operational sortie – Operation Sportpalast
(Sports Palace), March 5–9 – was inauspicious: Tirpitz was unable to locate
its quarry (convoys PQ-12 and QP-8) and was driven back into port by daring
attacks by a dozen Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers (NAS 817 and 832)
from HMS Victorious, which came within 30ft (9m) of achieving at least one
hit.
It was quite obvious to Raeder that in order for this new North/Norwegian
Sea strategy to succeed, he needed carrier-based aviation to help locate the
target convoys – and their covering “distant support” carrier/battleship task
forces – and to provide fighter cover against enemy carrier-based aircraft.
Meeting with Hitler three days after the Tirpitz’s narrow escape, the
mounting evidence in favor of carrier aviation belatedly convinced the Führer
to order completion of the Graf Zeppelin “in the shortest possible time in
view of the vital importance of such a [fleet] unit.”

B RAF aerial bombardment of Graf

Zeppelin on the night of August 27–
28, 1942
Despite its potential at sea had it been completed, the British Royal Air Force made only
one attempt to sink the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin during World War II. In late
August 1942, Graf Zeppelin was moored along a wharf in Becken VIII (Basin 8) of the
Deutsche Werke shipyards at Gdynia, Poland, known as Gotenhafen to the Germans.
Around 2000hrs on the evening of August 27, 1942, nine Lancaster bombers (three
from No. 106 Squadron and six from No. 97 Squadron), led by Wing Commander Guy
Gibson (later to command the Dam Busters Raid), took off from their bases in Britain
and headed for Gotenhafen; their target was Graf Zeppelin. Each bomber carried a
single 5,500lb (2,268kg) Capital Ship Bomb as well as a new Stabilized Automatic
Bomb Sight. Wing Commander Gibson had intended to attack Graf Zeppelin from an
altitude of 6,000ft (1828.8m) but when his aircraft arrived in the vicinity of Gotenhafen,
they found the target area covered by dense haze. In spite of heavy antiaircraft fire,
Gibson’s aircraft circled the target area for an hour until each bomber had made an
attack run. Gibson and his crews never saw Graf Zeppelin during the attack due to the
cloud cover but some of his aircraft attempted attacks from altitudes between 8,000ft
(2438.4m) and 10,0000ft (3,048m) nevertheless. Others made bombing runs against a
secondary target, the hulk of the battleship Gneisenau moored along a wharf in Becken
V of the yard, after spotting it through gaps in the clouds. No hits were scored on either
warship and all of Gibson’s aircraft returned safely to base. This scene shows Graf
Zeppelin moored in Becken VIII on the evening of August 27–28, 1942, during Gibson’s
raid. German flak crews are firing from 10.5cm Flak 38/39 mobile batteries in the railway
yard adjacent to Becken VIII.
 C Graf Zeppelin

KEY
1. Aft elevator
2. Fighter direction tower
3. 10.5cm gun directors
4. FuMO radar antenna
5. Bridge and air operations room
6. 10.5cm SK C/33 (L50) antiaircraft turret
7. Messerschmitt Me 155
8. Forward elevator
9. Junkers Ju 87E
10. Deutsche Werke catapults
11. 3.7cm SK C/30 (L/83) dual mount
12. 15cm SK C/28 (L/55) guns in casemates
13. Upper hangar
14. Lower hangar
15. La Mont boilers
16. Brown, Boveri & Cie geared turbines
17. 2cm Flak C/38 Flakvierling mount
After being in storage for 22 months, the Graf Zeppelin’s design was revised to
modernize its primary combat features in light of ongoing carrier warfare, especially in
the Pacific. The improvements included the addition of a pedestal-mounted armored
fighter direction center and GEMA Seetakt air and sea search radar and a sixth twin
10.5cm flak turret while retaining the 15cm SK/28 surface warfare armament, the 16 La
Mont boilers/four 50,000shp BBC steam turbines, and two hangar decks. The upper
hangar was originally built to accommodate 12 Bf 109T fighters and 13 Ju 87C dive
bombers while the lower one could hold 18 Fi 167 reconnaissance-torpedo bombers.
The ship’s reorganized CAG was to consist of one fighter (Bf 109T, to be replaced by
the Me 155 in 1946) squadron and three squadrons of Ju 87E multi-role combat aircraft.
Refueling and bomb/torpedo loading were to occur on the hangar decks and the aircraft
would be lifted to the flight deck using three elevators and launched using a pair of
Deutsche Werke catapults, shown here with their tracks covered by protective metal
plates.

Graf Zeppelin specifications

Dimensions length: 262.5m; beam: 36.2m; draft: 8.5m
Full 33,550 tons
displacement
Ship’s 1,720 men
complement
Machinery four Brown, Boveri & Cie geared turbines, fired by 16 La Mont high-
pressure boilers, producing 200,000shp and driving four screws
Aircraft 12 Messerschmitt Bf 109T or Me 155 and 28 Junkers Ju 87E
Catapults two 881psi Deutsche Werke compressed air-driven catapults
Maximum 33.8kt
speed
Range: 8,000km at 19kt
Protection Armored belt: 100mm amidships tapering to approximately 70mm
fore and aft; Deck Armor: 20mm beneath the flight deck and 40mm
beneath the lower hangar deck.
Armament 16 15cm SK C/28 (L/55) surface warfare guns housed in eight twin
Dopp MPL C/36 casemate mounts, four on each side (15cm SK
C/28 gun had a range at 40º elevation of 23,000m and had an
elevation range of -10º to 40º; 8 shells could be fired per minute)
12 10.5cm SK C/33 (L/50) antiaircraft guns mounted in twin turrets
with three fore of the island and three aft (10.5cm SK C/33 gun had a
range at 80º elevation of 12,500m and had an elevation range of -3º
to 85º; 15–18 shells could be fired per minute)
22 3.7cm SK C/30 (L/83) antiaircraft guns in 11 twin Dopp L C/30
mounts, one on the bow and five in sponsons along each side of the
flight deck (3.7cm SK C/30 gun had a range at 85º elevation of
6,800m and had an elevation range of -9º to 85º; 30 shells could be
fired per minute)
28 2cm Flak C/38 (L/65) antiaircraft guns housed in seven
Flakvierling-quadruple barrel mounts, four along the portside of the
flight deck and three starboard (2cm Flak C/38 gun had a range at
85º elevation of 3,700m and had an elevation range of -12º to 90º;
220 shells could be fired per minute)
 Following an extensive series of meetings within and between the naval
staff, Luftwaffe, and RLM, a conference with Hitler was held at the Führer’s
HQ on April 16, 1942. From the discussions, Hitler agreed that the Graf
Zeppelin should be completed after all. The fleet carrier’s hull was to be
finished and half of the machinery installed was to be made fully operating,
at least enough to steam at 25–26kt for flight tests to be conducted. Other
modifications, such as radar installation, an armored “fighter director control
tower,” increased antiaircraft armament and a taller funnel, were also
required. Initially the embarked carrier air group (CAG) would consist of a
dozen Bf 109Ts and 28 new Ju 87Es.

After the counter-poise bulges were completed, on April 21–23, 1943 the forlorn and forsaken
Graf Zeppelin was towed back to Stettin and anchored in shallow water in a nearby estuary to
await its final fate. (Douglas Dildy Collection)

The ship was to be towed to Kiel for the required modifications to be

made. The main modification was that the island’s staff mast was to be
replaced with a tower containing the ship’s command and weapons control
center and fighter director station in a shrapnel-proof housing. Atop would be
mounted the 8-ton GEMA Seetakt (“Sea Tactic”) surface and air search radar,
capable of detecting an aircraft at 500m (1,804ft) altitude at a distance of
28km (17.4 miles). A sixth dual 10.5cm L/65 G/33 Flak gun was to be
mounted ahead of the island and the ship’s light antiaircraft armament
increased to twenty-eight 2cm L/115 C/38s in seven Vierling L/38 quadruple
mounts.
The ship already had a noticeable list due to miscalculations in the original
design and the additional weight on the starboard side of the ship only
exacerbated the problem, requiring counter-poise bulges to be affixed to the
bilge keel, with the port bulge constructed of much heavier steel (35mm vs
12mm thickness) and filled with 300 tons of concrete ballast. The bulges also
served as “external fuel tanks” carrying 1,550 cubic meters of fuel oil –
increasing the warship’s cruising range from 6,500 to 8,000nmi – and
provided enhanced anti-torpedo/mine protection.
A confirmatory meeting with Hitler on May 15, 1942 – during which he
also approved the conversion of an unfinished Hipper-class heavy cruiser and
three passenger liners into auxiliary aircraft carriers – scheduled the activities
needed to finally complete and commission the Graf Zeppelin. The ship’s
modifications were to be completed by April 1943, so that flying tests could
begin on August 1 with operational sea trials following in the winter of 1943–
44. Once operational, the ship would join Raeder’s battle group in Norway,
being based at Trondheim with its CAG stationed at nearby Oyesand airfield
between sorties.
Escorted by three Type 35 minesweepers and six patrol boats, beginning
on November 30, 1942, Graf Zeppelin was towed from Gdynia to Kiel and
five days later it was slipped into the 40,000-ton floating drydock so that the
hull modifications could begin. While the external work was proceeding,
engineering crews began working on the powerplant, readying the two inner
turbines and shafts for self-propelled operation. Adding the armored control
tower, mounting the radar, and increasing the height of the funnel were to
begin shortly after the first day of the new year. The added construction
raised the warship’s displacement to an estimated 24,500 tons (standard) and
33,550 tons (full load).
Shortly after the great vessel’s arrival Graf Zeppelin was toured by a group
of Italian naval officers, a commission studying German technologies for
possible application to their own aircraft carrier project, the Regia Marina’s
(Italian Royal Navy) RMS Aquila (Eagle), which was being converted from
the 48,502-ton ocean liner SS Roma. Reporting back to the Supermarina (the
Regia Marina’s high command), the commission wrote:
The hull [is] completely in position, engines and boilers ready to function although all trials have
not yet been carried out. The electrical plant is complete except for the cables to some small
supply units. The artillery installations are entirely lacking, [but] the electrical connections for
them appear to be prepared. The equipment of the living quarters is yet to be finished. The hangar
lifts are ready. The [aviation] petrol system is in process of being fitted. The covering of the parts
of the ship relating to artillery and the small items of equipment are lacking. The navigation
fittings are all ready… The impression is given that she is 85 per cent ready.

This was as close to becoming an operational warship as the Graf Zeppelin

would ever get.
On December 31, 1942, in Operation Regenbogen (Rainbow), the heavy
cruiser Admiral Hipper, armored cruiser Lützow, and six destroyers sortied
from Altafjord in northern Norway to intercept and destroy convoy JW51B
bound for Murmansk with 202 tanks, 2,046 other vehicles, 87 fighters, 33
bombers, 10,400 tons of gasoline, 11,480 tons of aviation fuel, and 49,000
tons of other supplies. In rough seas, terrible weather, and the mid-winter
twilight the Nazi task force struggled to locate the 14-ship convoy but instead
stumbled into its escort, the light cruisers HMS Sheffield and Jamaica and
five destroyers. The smaller British warships fought a spirited defense,
damaging the Hipper and sinking one German destroyer, and the task force
returned to Altafjord empty-handed.
Already reeling from and enraged by the encirclement and decimation of
the Wehrmacht’s Sixth Army at Stalingrad – besieged since November 23,
1942, 107,800 troops would surrender between January 31 and February 2,
1943 – the Kriegsmarine’s defeat sent Hitler into an apoplectic rage. Having
lost all confidence in Raeder and his expensive fleet of surface warships, on
January 6 he vented his spleen in a furious 90-minute rant, saying “the big
ships are worthless and cannot do anything without air cover and smaller
ships as escorts.”
Hitler ordered all major fleet units “paid off” and their big guns mounted in
the “Atlantic Wall” and other coastal defenses. Specifically, he ordered:
1. All work on heavy ships now building or in the process of conversion is to cease forthwith,
2. All battleships, armored cruisers and other cruisers, other than those needed for training
purposes, are to be placed in reserve, and
3. Naval personnel, workmen, etc., who become available as a result of this directive are to be
employed… to accelerate the building and repair of U-boats.
 On April 21, the great gray bulk of Germany’s only aircraft carrier was
towed from Kiel to Stettin, arriving two days later. It was towed up the
Mönne estuary (a branch of the Oder) and anchored in a bend in the river,
with only 2ft (0.6m) of water beneath the keel. The dream of carrier naval
aviation for the Kriegsmarine had finally come to an end.

During the postwar period, agencies from the victorious Allied nations roamed the four
German occupation zones gathering as much information about their defeated foe as
possible. In September 1945 a US Navy intelligence team visited the Graf Zeppelin,
inspecting it after Soviet naval engineers had refloated it, raising it from the mud of the Mönne
River. (US Navy Photo NH78310)

The fateful meeting also resulted in the resignation of Admiral Raeder. In

his final report to his Führer, he stated – among other important points – that:
The lack of adequate air forces for reconnaissance and cover, and the fact that it has not proved
possible to add air power in the form of aircraft carriers to the fighting powers of the [battle fleet
has] imposed sharp limitations on the manner in which the OKM could employ the fleet as a
corporate entity and have acted as an impediment on the prospects of achieving success.

Forlorn and forgotten, the Graf Zeppelin lay moribund in a bend of the
Mönne River for exactly a year, until the unrelenting Soviet Red Army
approached from the East and on April 25, 1945, the dream of Nazi naval air
power succumbed to its sad reality – it was not to be. Scuttled, it settled into
the mud of the Mönne and large explosive charges were detonated, wrecking
the boilers, turbine rooms, electrical generators, airplane elevators, and
opening the hull to the sea. After the Third Reich collapsed and surrendered
on May 7–8, the Soviets filled the vacuum; discovering the scuttled hulk,
their naval engineers set to refloat the vessel, repairing its ruptured hull and
by August 1945 it was afloat once again.
After evaluating it, Soviet naval staff determined that they would never be
able to make the Graf Zeppelin into a useable aircraft carrier, but they did
come up with a useful purpose for the derelict vessel. Desiring to test the
effectiveness of their naval and air force ordnance against aircraft carriers – a
warship type that the Soviets’ erstwhile American and British Allies had in
abundance – the ship became “experimental platform” PO-101. On August
16, 1947 it was towed from Świnoujście (formerly German Swinemünde) to
a point approximately 40–45nmi miles out to sea and for the next two days it
was subjected to the detonation of 1,000kg bombs and 18cm naval artillery
shells to determine the damage done, and used as a target by the Soviet air
force – who obtained six hits out of 100 bombs – and finally sunk by torpedo
attacks from three Soviet destroyers.

The hulk of the Graf Zeppelin, bombed and torpedoed as a Soviet weapons testing target,
now lies at the bottom of the Baltic Sea some 30 miles (50km) off the Polish coast. On July
12, 2006, while making soundings for oil deposits in the Baltic, the Polish oil company
Petrobaltic’s research vessel St. Barbara discovered the long-lost Nazi aircraft carrier lying in
264ft (80.5m) of water, approximately 30nmi (55km) north of Władysławowo, Poland. (Photo
Courtesy MDPI, Basel, and Artur Grządziel)

The death of the dream came at 1808hrs on August 18, 1947 when the
could-have-been-great warship slipped bow-first beneath the cold waves of
the Baltic Sea and sank in 264ft (80.5m) of water approximately 30nmi
(55km) off Poland’s northern coast, between Łeba and Władysławowo.
In addition to two Versuchsmaschinen, three Bf 109Es were modified for arresting gear trials
at E-Stelle (See). This example – initially coded WL+IECY, later TK+HL – was a Bf 109E-0
with DB 600G-2 engine and was used to test the small diameter (2.8m) VDM propeller in the
hope that it would reduce damage to the deck and propeller/engine in the all-too-frequent “tip
ups” experienced during arrestor cable engagement trials. (Douglas Dildy Collection)

German carrier aircraft

Despite the bitterly acrimonious debates between Großadmiral Raeder and
Hermann Göring, the imperious leader of the Luftwaffe – and by their
minions beneath them – the RLM did its part to stock the navy’s carrier with
defensive fighters and, initially, dual-role reconnaissance/bomber aircraft.
Showing a preference for defense, the original complement was to be 30
Arado Ar 197 biplane fighters and a dozen Ar 95 three-seat reconnaissance-
bombers.

Messerschmitt Bf 109T “Toni”

The Ar 197 proved to be heavy, underpowered, and slow and was rejected by
the RLM, which turned to the increasingly successful high-performance
Messerschmitt Bf 109 design to fill the carrier-based fighter requirement. In
October 1937 the tenth “Emil” prototype, or Versuchsmaschine (Bf 109V-17
W.Nr. 1776/TK+HK), was reserved for development as a ship-borne fighter,
making its first flight on February 28, 1938. It was followed by a second (Bf
109V-17a W.Nr. 301/TK+HM), which mounted the Messerschmitt-designed
70cm tailhook.
Beginning in January 1939, these two – plus three modified Bf 109Es –
were used to evaluate the landing gear modifications and arrestor hook design
in numerous landing, taxi, and arrestor hook trials at Erprobungsstelle (See)
(Research Station (Sea), commonly abbreviated E-Stelle (See)) at
Travemünde, the Luftwaffe’s experimental site for developing naval aircraft.
Eventually these were joined by the definitive Bf 109T-1 (“T” for “Träger”
or “carrier;” Bf 109E W.Nr. 6153/CK+NC) prototype – first flown March 26,
1940 – and seven “pre-production” test articles during January–March 1941.
The bevy of Bf 109s conducted almost 500 arrested landings using the
production-standard 18mm-thick DEMAG arrestor cables on Travemünde’s
800–900m (2,625–2953ft) simulated “carrier deck.”
Rather than disrupt Messerschmitt’s Bf 109E assembly line, in November
1940 the RLM ordered Gerhard Fieseler Werke GmbH to produce 70 Bf
109T-1s to equip the Graf Zeppelin’s fighter group, II.(J)/Trägergruppe 186.
The most obvious change from the basic “Emil” was the increase in
wingspan, the enlarged wing area decreasing take-off distance and the
lengthened aileron span improving low-speed handling for landings. Flap
travel was also increased, a tailhook and four catapult-cradle attach points
were added, and a life raft was installed behind the pilot’s headrest.
Additionally, to “kill lift” on demand and enable precision landings, spoilers
were added to the inboard section of the wing. The “Toni” was to be fitted
with the DB 601N engine which had a higher compression ratio and used 100
octane (C3) aviation fuel to produce 1,175hp for better take-off performance.
To enable the pilot to better endure the sudden accelerations of catapult
launches, a thicker headrest and seat arm rests were provided.

The second Bf 109 developmental aircraft was the modified Bf 109B TK+HM, redesignated Bf
109V-17a once it was completed. It was used for catapult launch trials, using the Heinkel-built
system mounted on a barge at Travemünde. Note the “L-shaped” aft catapult cradle attach-
points beneath the empennage. (Douglas Dildy Collection)
 Two-thirds of the 63 production Bf 109Ts were issued to the three squadrons of I./JG 77, at
Stavanger/Sola and the remaining 21 to Jagdgruppe Drontheim (Fighter Group Trondheim), a
four-squadron fighter training organization based at three Trondheim airfields. Seen here, a
“Toni” belonging to I./JG 77’s 3. Staffel undergoes maintenance at the squadron’s Herdla
airfield near Bergen, Norway. The “Toni’s” extra-long wings are apparent in this view.
(Douglas Dildy Collection)

Finally, the longer-range Telefunken FuG VII (30-mile/50km air-to-

ground/ship range) radio/telephone was provided, as well as a FuG 25 IFF
transponder, and a large, more sensitive and stable Patin master compass.
These features allowed the “Toni” pilot to fly with confidence over the
featureless sea and remain orientated in relationship to the carrier as well as
be vectored by the carrier’s radar operators for intercepts, and to return to
ship.
The Bf 109T was equipped with the standard Bf 109E-7 armament: a pair
of Rheinmetall-Borsig MG 17 7.92mm machine guns mounted atop the
engine and two Ikaria-Berlin MG FF 20mm cannon in the wings. Aimed
through a Reflexvisier 12 gunsight, the MG 17s were adequate against
contemporary fighters and the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm fabric-covered
Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers with the 20mm cannon typically
being used against larger, more modern twin-engine bombers.
The first Bf 109T-1 (W.Nr. 7728/RB+OA) rolled out of the Fieseler
factory in January 1941, but by the time the type’s operational trials were
completed, Raeder had ordered the Graf Zeppelin placed into temporary
storage at Gdynia. With its longer, glider-like wings and more powerful DB
601N engine, the type was perfect from operating from the small, confined
airfields ensconced in the narrow Norwegian fjords, so Fieseler was ordered
to complete the 63 production examples as the land-based T-2 version,
having the tailhooks and launching cradle attach-points removed.
In June 1941 the 63 “land-based Tonis” were delivered to
I./Jagdgeschwader 77 (Fighter Wing 77 or I./JG 77) at Stavanger, Norway, a
new unit specifically formed to defend Norwegian-based Kriegsmarine
warships from RAF attacks, and Jagdgruppe Drontheim (Fighter Group
Trondheim), the command’s fighter training unit. The “Toni” proved itself
imminently capable in its intended role; in six months of combat I./JG 77
destroyed 21 RAF twin-engine maritime patrol and torpedo/bomber aircraft,
three four-engine Boeing Fortress I heavy bombers, and two high-flying
photo-reconnaissance airplanes.

In April 1943, the Kriegsmarine released to the Luftwaffe the 52 Bf 109Ts held in storage at
Pillau airfield, 32 were reserved for Reichsluftverteidigung (aerial defense of the Reich) duties
and another 17 were assigned to Nachtjagdgruppe 101 (Night Fighter Group 101), one
squadron of which specialized in Wild Sau (Wild Boar) single engine night-fighter training
based at Manching airfield, near Ingolstadt in southern Germany. (Douglas Dildy Collection)

Anticipating Hitler’s decision to resume work on the Graf Zeppelin, in

December 1941 the Luftwaffe withdrew the 47 remaining “Tonis” from
combat operations to convert them to the ship-based T-1 standard and store
them awaiting the completion of their carrier. Following overhaul and
reconfiguration back to the T-1 standard, they were ferried to Pillau-Neutief
airfield near Königsberg, East Prussia, for storage, where they were joined by
five pre-production Bf 109T-1s from E-Stelle (See).
 Winning multi-role design, Fieseler’s excellent Fi 167A. Imbued with Fieseler’s innovative
short take-off and landing (STOL) capabilities the type had excellent slow-speed handling
characteristics, and with the carrier making 30kt into a 10kt wind, the aircraft could practically
descend vertically to alight on its deck. (Douglas Dildy Collection)

Following Hitler’s January 6, 1943 decision to “pay off” the Graf

Zeppelin, the RLM ordered the 52 “Tonis” returned to T-2 standard and
issued to Luftwaffe air defense units to help counter the increasing Allied day
and night bombing of the Third Reich. In April that year, 11 were used to
establish Jagdstaffel Helgoland (Fighter Squadron Helgoland), a component
of II./JG 11 that was based on the tiny island of Düne, located 29 miles
(47km) offshore at the mouth of the German Bight. That summer–autumn,
“Jasta Helgoland” was heavily engaged intercepting US Army Air Force
(USAAF) bombing raids. In six months the squadron shot down 12 B-17s
and three B-24s – and lost 14 “Tonis” – before the arrival of American escort
fighters forced its withdrawal. The type’s light armament could not compete
effectively with the bomber formations’ heavy defensive fire and its
performance was outclassed by escorting P-47s and P-51s. Withdrawing to
Lister, Norway, in October 1943 and redesignated 11./JG 11, the unit used 21
Bf 109T-2s to protect German shipping in the Skagerrak – downing three
more twin-engine RAF maritime strike aircraft and two more USAAF B-17s
– until the type was withdrawn from combat in August 1944.
Fieseler Fi 167A
Following the rejection of the heavy, underpowered Ar 95 three-place biplane
reconnaissance-bomber, in 1937 the RLM issued an all-new specification: a
ship-borne multi-role aircraft (Mehrzweck-Flugzeug) capable of
reconnaissance, dive bombing, level bombing, launching torpedoes, and
antisubmarine patrol/dropping depth charges. Beating out the revised Arado
design – the Ar 195 – the winner was the Fieseler Fi 167, a very large,
spindly-looking biplane that was powered by the 12-cylinder 1,100hp
Daimler-Benz DB 601B liquid-cooled engine and could carry twice the
required load – a 1,487lb (700kg) torpedo – at higher than the specified
speed.
 In May 1942, ESt 167 was re-established and deployed to a Dutch airfield to conduct
operational evaluations, the most significant being testing various camouflage colors and
patterns for use at low-altitude torpedo deliveries over the North Sea. (Douglas Dildy
Collection)

By the end of 1938 Fieseler was contracted to build a dozen pre-production

Fi 167A-0s, but shortly afterwards the small company was also directed to
open an assembly line producing the new and much-needed Bf 109E.
Consequently, the Fi 167’s production priority was low and it took Fieseler
two years to build the 12 pre-production examples.
Following the successful trials of three prototypes (Fi 167V-1 through V-
3), the first example of the Fi 167A-0 (W.Nr. 167005/TJ+AN) passed its
RLM acceptance flight on May 22, 1940. Two A-0s were assigned to E-
Stelle (See) to supplement the three prototypes participating in the ongoing
arresting-gear trials and one was sent to the Daimler-Benz engine test center
at Echterdingen. The other nine examples were used to form a small
operational trials unit called Erprobungsstaffel 167 (Evaluation Squadron
167, commonly abbreviated ESt 167) at Travemünde. This unit conducted
flying and operational tests until the aircraft were recalled, to be placed in
storage, in December 1941.

To provide the Graf Zeppelin’s dive-bomber capability the RLM had Junkers navalize the
dreaded Stuka. Following two developmental machines – called Versuchsmaschinen – one
prototype Ju 87C-0 and four Ju 87C-1 pre-production examples were built. The definitive Ju
87 C-0 prototype (GD+FB) – called a Musterflugzeug (master aircraft) – featured folding
wings, arresting hook, catapult cradle attach-points, jettisonable landing gear, a two-man
dinghy, and flotation devices. (Douglas Dildy Collection)

However, in the spring of the following year, Hitler, Raeder, and the
Kriegsmarine decided to complete the Graf Zeppelin after all, but by then
major changes had to be ordered in their planned carrier aviation program.
One of these was that the Luftwaffe staff decided that the Fieseler biplane
was now obsolete and no longer a viable – or survivable – component of the
carrier air group, so the Fi 167A-0s were released from storage and nine of
them were used to re-establish ESt 167.
By mid-1943 the large, elegant Fieseler biplanes were completely obsolete
for modern combat and, being excess to the Luftwaffe’s needs, the dozen Fi
167A-0s were transferred to Croatia where the Nazi-puppet government used
them to combat Tito’s communist partisans. The government ruled the cities
while the communists controlled the countryside, besieging the oppressive
regime’s isolated outposts, but the Fieseler’s great load-carrying capability
and outstanding short take-off and landing capabilities made it perfect for
resupplying them. Three were lost in combat (two to roving RAF and South
African Air Force Mustangs) before the Croatian capital was liberated by the
Soviets on May 6, 1944, two days before Nazi Germany surrendered.

Junkers Ju 87C and E “Trägerstukas”

In 1938, the Fi 167A possessed the potential to be an excellent counterpart to
the Royal Navy’s Fairey Swordfish reconnaissance/torpedo bomber.
However, the Ju 87 Stuka’s highly successful combat debut in the Spanish
Civil War made it the obvious choice for the carrier’s dive-bomber
requirement.
Two prototypes were built. Ju 87V-10 (W.Nr. 4928/TK+HD) was used to
evaluate the various fuselage, arresting hook, and landing gear modifications
as well as the installation of flotation bags in the underwing panels, life rafts,
and other sea survival equipment. Ju 87V-11 (W.Nr. 4929/TV+OD) was used
to develop the double-jointed wing folding mechanism that allowed the
wings to be tucked in alongside the empennage. This significantly reduced
the large aircraft’s “footprint,” enabling use of the ship’s elevators and
storage below decks.

The RLM also ordered the Czechoslovakian Aero company to produce a navalized version of
the Luftwaffe’s advanced flying trainer, the Arado Ar 96B-1. The prototype (W.Nr
964553/CD+OA), seen here on one of the catapult launching cradles at Travemünde in March
1943, was followed by five pre-production examples, designated Ar 96B-1/T, all sent to E-
Stelle (See) for pilot catapult and arrested landings training. When the station’s Ju 87C-1
(CD+FB) was sent to the Regia Aeronautica for the Italian navy’s carrier development, two Ar
96B-1/Ts (the prototype and PH+GZ) and a complete set of DEMAG arresting gear were also
sent to San Egidio airfield near Perugia, home of the Regia Aeronautica’s Velivoli Imarcati
(Carrier Flying School). (Douglas Dildy Collection)

In April 1939, Junkers began modifying five “Bertas” (Ju 87Bs) at the
Templehof factory in Berlin. One (W.Nr. 0423/GD+FB) became the
definitive Ju 87C-0 prototype or Musterflugzeug (master aircraft), equipped
with folding wings, arresting hook, catapult cradle attach points, jettisonable
landing gear, a two-man dinghy, and underwing flotation bags. The four
others were completed as the improved C-1 version. The two
Versuchsmaschinen (V-10 and V-11), the Musterflugzeug (C-0), and one
“Caesar” (C-1 W.Nr. 0572/CD+FB) were all eventually transferred to E-
Stelle (See) for catapult launch and arrested landing trials.

The Junkers Ju 87E Stuka was expected to replace the obsolete Fi 167A as the Graf
Zeppelin’s multi-role combat aircraft, including the ability to deliver torpedo attacks using the
Luftwaffe’s LT F5b or (Italian-made) F5W torpedoes. The second prototype, Ju 87V-25
(BK+EF) arrived at E-Stelle (See) in September 1941 to begin its carrier compatibility trials.
Fully loaded, it quickly proved to be too heavy for the Graf Zeppelin’s catapults, elevators, and
arresting gear, preventing its use as a torpedo bomber and limiting its role as a dive bomber
to delivering a single 1100.5lb (500kg) bomb. (Douglas Dildy Collection)

To equip two Stuka squadrons to be embarked upon each of the four

carriers proposed in “Plan Z,” in August 1939 the RLM ordered 120 Ju 87C-
1s. However, with Hitler initiating hostilities the next month, the tectonic
shifts in the Kriegsmarine’s priorities caused the RLM to reduce the
requirement to only 30 “Caesars,” just enough to equip Graf Zeppelin’s dive-
bomber group, I.(St)/Trägergruppe 186.
 In March 1942, when the Graf Zeppelin project was revived the OKM and
RLM revised the planned composition of its air group. The 18 Fi 167As and
13 Ju 87Cs were to be replaced by 28 examples of the improved Trägerstuka,
the Ju 87E. Horrendous Stuka losses in the Battle of Britain had prompted the
Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG to significantly improve the type,
creating an aerodynamically cleaner design with increased armor protection
and larger fuel tanks and powered by a 1,400hp Jumo 211J engine, increasing
the bombload up to 4,000lb (1,800kg), to become the Ju 87D model.
One prototype “Dora” (Ju 87V-24 W.Nr. 087-0544/BK+EE) was modified
with wing folding mechanism, arresting hook, and overwater safety features
to become the carrier-based Ju 87E dive bomber prototype, while a second
(Ju 87V-25 W.Nr. 087-0538/BK+EF) was modified to carry the Luftwaffe’s
1,653–1,995lb (750–905kg) LT F5 series torpedo. Upon completion these
two, plus two “Dora” models, were sent to E-Stelle (See) in autumn 1942 for
extensive carrier-related trials
Junkers Ju 87E specifications

Dimensions length: 11m

wingspan: 13.8m

Powerplant one 1,410hp Jumo 211J engine

Maximum speed 354km/h

Range 600km

Armament three 7.92mm MG 17 machine guns

Payload one 1,000kg armour-piercing and four 50kg anti-personnel bombs or one 905kg LT F5b torpedo

Crew two

Despite the fact that the tests proved that neither Graf Zeppelin’s catapult
system nor its arresting gear could cope with the 13,228lb (6,000kg) “Dora”
derivatives, the Ju 87E was viewed as the carrier’s new Mehrzweck-Flugzeug
and the OKM requested that the RLM provide 54 examples – enough for the
unfinished fleet carrier and the four proposed auxiliary carriers then being
discussed. The RLM in fact ordered 95, with deliveries scheduled to
commence in 1944.
Needless to say, in January that year when the Nazis’ carrier program was
scrapped altogether, the Ju 87E order was canceled as well.

Messerschmitt Me 155
Because the Bf 109T was quickly surpassed by the Allies’ more modern
fighters, when the Graf Zeppelin was revived in the spring of 1942 the RLM
directed that Messerschmitt develop a new design for a ship-borne fighter. It
was initially referred to as the “Bf 109ST,” the RLM issuing the project
number 8-155 for the specification. General arrangements for the Me 155
were completed by September that year and, to relieve Messerschmitt’s
overworked design teams at the Augsburg office, the detailed design work
was assigned to the Vichy Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques
du Nord (SNCAN) offices near Villacoublay airfield, located just outside
Paris. To assist the French designers and engineers in adapting
Messerschmitt’s proven carrier-specific components to the Me 155, the pre-
production Bf 109T-1 at E-Stelle (See) (W.Nr. 7728/RB+OA) was flown
from Travemünde to Villacoublay in December 1942.
Messerschmitt Me 155 specifications

Dimensions length: 8.9m

wingspan: 20.5m

Powerplant one 1,455hp Daimler-Benz DB 605A-1 engine

Maximum speed 649km/h

Range 460km

Ceiling 12,000m

Armament three MG 151 20mm cannon and two MG 131 13mm machine guns

In the interest of economy and simplicity, the Me 155 was to use as many Bf
109 components as possible. The fuselage was more or less that of the
standard Me 109G, married to an entirely new, high-aspect (glider-like) wing.
The new wide-span wing allowed the inclusion of a wide-track, inward
retracting, FW 190-style undercarriage, providing much improved handling
as needed for carrier landings. Standard naval equipment such as folding
wings, catapult “horns,” and arresting gear hook were to be fitted. The new
carrier fighter was to be armed with three 20mm MG 151 cannons and a pair
of 13mm MG 131 machine guns. Powered by the new DB 605A-1 engine of
1,455hp, it had an estimated maximum speed of 403mph (649km/h). The
OKM informed the RLM that it would need 48 examples of the type.
 The Me 155 ship-board fighter was proposed to replace the Bf 109T-1 Messerschmitt. The
design was developed during 1942 by the French aeronautical firm SNCAN, but the
protracted prototype construction and testing schedule meant that the 48 examples needed
would not be produced until 1946. When the Graf Zeppelin was canceled altogether, the
design was turned over to Blohm & Voss for development into a high-altitude interceptor to
combat the USAAF B-29 Superfortress bomber. (Douglas Dildy Collection)

However, in November 1942 it was determined that the Me 155A would

not be ready for operational deployment until 1946 which meant that, if the
carrier could be completed in the winter of 1943/44, the Bf 109T-1s in
storage at Pillau would have to suffice until the new fighter arrived to replace
them. When the carrier project was finally canceled, the project was
transferred to Blohm & Voss where, as the BV 155, it was redesigned as a
high-altitude interceptor to combat the USAAF’s Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

Wartime auxiliary carrier conversion projects

In May 1942 Hitler’s anxious new-found need for carrier aviation resulted in
his order to convert four ships languishing in German ports into aircraft
carriers. Three of these were ocean liners and the fourth was the unfinished
Hipper-class heavy cruiser, KMS Seydlitz. Of the liners – SS Europa,
Potsdam, and Gneisenau – the one with the greatest potential was the
Norddeutscher Lloyd line’s high-speed steamship Europa.
 In March 1942, Adolf Hitler belatedly and finally recognized the value of carrier-based naval
aviation and authorized the carrier conversion of the 18,000-ton Hipper-class heavy cruiser
Seydlitz that was 90 percent complete; the ship was to be named KMS Weser upon
commissioning. Photographed by a high-altitude RAF reconnaissance aircraft in May 1942, it
can be seen moored to a pier in the Deschimag Shipyard at Bremen, its main armament
clearly evident. (US Navy Photo NH 91659)

Design work for the conversions – done by the OKM’s Hauptamt

Kriegsschiffbau (Head Department of Warship Construction, formerly known
as the K-Amt) – was begun immediately after Hitler’s May 13, 1942
decision, with the Seydlitz and Europa being given priority.
Built by AG Weser and launched on January 19, 1939, the 18,000-ton
cruiser was 90 percent complete, including its heavy armament, and was
moored at a pier at Bremen. To begin the conversion, its heavy guns were
removed and its superstructure was dismantled down to the flight deck level,
stripping the ship of approximately 2,400 tons of steel. The flight deck was to
have been 660ft (200m) long and 98ft (30m) wide. Beneath it, the hangar was
451ft (137.5m) long and 56ft (17m) wide forward and 39ft (12m) wide
amidships and aft, housing ten Stukas and ten fighters. Two elevators would
move the aircraft between the hangar and flight decks and two catapults
would launch them. Upon completion, it was to have been renamed the KMS
Weser.
Weser specifications

Dimensions length: 192.5m; beam: 24.4m; draft: 5.5m

Full 11,400 tons

displacement

Machinery three Deschimag geared steam turbines, fired by 12 high-pressure boilers, producing 130,000shp
and driving three screws at a maximum speed of 32kt

Aircraft ten Messerschmitt Bf 109T, ten Junkers Ju 87E

Catapults two Deutsche Werke compressed air-driven catapults

Hangars one hangar divided into four compartments

Armament ten 10.5cm SK C/33 (L/50) antiaircraft guns

ten 3.7cm SK C/30 (L/83) antiaircraft guns
24 2cm Flak C/38 (L/65) antiaircraft guns

Theoretically the best choice for converting an ocean liner into an aircraft
carrier, the SS Europa was designated Flugzeugträger I. Built by Blohm &
Voss shipyard in Hamburg and christened in 1928, the 62,160-ton
(49,746GRT) displacement high-speed steam turbine ocean liner was
designed to win the international competition for the “Blue Riband,” the prize
for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing. On its maiden voyage from Bremen to
New York (March 19–24, 1930) it won the Blue Riband with the average
speed of 27.9kt in a crossing time of four days, 17 hours and six minutes.

To supplement Graf Zeppelin and Weser, three passenger ships sidelined by the war were
selected to be converted into “auxiliary aircraft carriers.” The largest of these was the
49,746GRT high-speed ocean liner SS Europa, seen here prior to its record-setting maiden
voyage to New York City. Under the project designation Flugzeugträger I, it was designed to
carry two dozen Bf 109Ts and 18 Ju 87Es. However, the practical problems of turning a
passenger vessel into a warship were too great and the project was canceled in November
1942. (Ryan Noppen Collection)

Europa specifications
 Dimensions length: 291m; beam: 37m; draft: 10.3m

Full 56,500 tons

displacement

Machinery four Blohm & Voss geared steam turbines, fired by 24 boilers, producing 105,000shp and driving
four screws at a maximum speed of 26.5kt

Aircraft 24 Messerschmitt Bf 109T, 18 Junkers Ju 87E

Catapults two Deutsche Werke compressed air-driven catapults

Hangars one hangar divided into five compartments

Armament 12 10.5cm SK C/33 (L/50) antiaircraft guns

20 3.7cm SK C/30 (L/83) antiaircraft guns
28 2cm Flak C/38 (L/65) antiaircraft guns

While fast and spacious enough to operate two dozen fighters and 18 Stukas
(as redesigned), significant structural modifications were required to convert
a civilian passenger liner into a warship. The hull was not stressed for combat
operations, much less armored, requiring waterline side bulges to be mounted
to strengthen it, and concrete “armor plate” needed to be added to protect
vital spaces. Once it was determined that cutting the elevator wells (or shafts)
into the main deck compromised the ship’s structural integrity and that the
side bulges added drag, reduced operating speed, and increased fuel
consumption, the project became far less promising. Consequently, it was
canceled on November 25, 1942.

D
1. Elbe Training Carrier Conversion Project
Two other Norddeutscher Lloyd liners, the sisterships Gneisenau and Potsdam, were
considered for conversion at the same time as Europa. The need for significant
structural changes and the 21kt maximum speed of the vessels brought their
preliminary conversion designs to an end at the same time as Europa’s. Potsdam was
found suitable for conversion into a training carrier and, rechristened Elbe; amended
plans were drawn up. Ironically, the third sistership of Gneisenau and Potsdam,
Scharnhorst, was caught in Japan when World War II began and was converted by the
Imperial Japanese Navy into an escort carrier, renamed Shinyo. Elbe is shown here
according to its training carrier design.
2. Weser Aircraft Carrier Conversion Project
Intended to have been built on the hull of the unfinished heavy cruiser Seydlitz, the
Weser carrier conversion would have been able to take advantage of Seydlitz’s
powerful machinery and fast maximum speed of 32kt. A drawback of Weser would have
been the cruiser’s beam which was the narrowest of the Kriegsmarine’s carrier
conversion projects. The narrow hangar would have only allowed for an air wing of 20
aircraft. Weser is shown here according to its conversion plan as well as the proposed
Messerschmitt Me 155 fighter, intended to replace the Bf 109T in 1946.
 Because the two smaller, slower (18,000-ton/21kt) liners – known as the
Jade-class auxiliary aircraft carriers – had the same redesign and conversion
problems, work on SS Gneisenau was halted the same day and it was decided
to convert SS Potsdam into a non-combat training carrier, renamed the KMS
Elbe. The ship was towed from Hamburg to Kiel in December, where Blohm
& Voss began the conversion by removing the passenger cabins. A month
later Hitler’s final decision brought work to an abrupt halt.
Elbe specifications

Dimensions length: 203m; beam: 26.8m; draft: 8.6m

Full 23,400 tons

displacement

Ship’s 900 men

complement

Machinery two Blohm & Voss steam turbines driving two Siemens-Schuckert electric motors, fired by four
Benson high-pressure boilers, producing 26,000shp horsepower and driving two screws at a
maximum speed of 21kt

Aircraft 18 Messerschmitt Bf 109T, 12 Junkers Ju 87E

Catapults two Deutsche Werke compressed air-driven catapults

Hangars one hangar divided into four compartments

Armament 12 10.5cm SK C/33 (L/50) antiaircraft guns; 20 3.7cm SK C/30 (L/83) antiaircraft guns; 24 2cm Flak
C/38 (L/65) antiaircraft guns

The Hauptamt Kriegsschiffbau also considered converting an unfinished

French light cruiser – the 11,500-ton De Grasse – into an auxiliary carrier
designated Flugzeugträger II. The first of its class, the De Grasse was laid
down at the Arsenal de Lorient shipyard in August 1939 and was captured 28
percent complete in June the next year.

E
1. De Grasse Aircraft Carrier Conversion Project
On paper, the French light cruiser De Grasse seemed to be a good selection for
conversion into an auxiliary carrier as its intended capabilities and performance would
have been very similar to those of Weser. The problem with De Grasse was that it
required extensive work and materials as it was only 28 percent complete when
captured in June 1940 and no work had been done on it since. Specialized labor and
materials from Germany could not be immediately spared and it was quickly found after
work did recommence on it in December 1942 that French labor in the Lorient shipyard
was less than willing to make any special effort on the vessel. After its conversion was
canceled in February 1943, the unfinished De Grasse was left largely untouched for the
remainder of the war and was launched to clear its slipway in 1946. After sitting idle for
another five years, its hull was towed to the Arsenal de Brest shipyard where it was
completed as an antiaircraft cruiser in 1956.
2. Seaplane Carrier Giuseppe Miraglia
When it first entered service in November 1927, it was believed that Giuseppe Miraglia
would be capable of launching and retrieving aircraft while underway, giving it
operational capabilities beyond that of a mobile seaplane base. Aircraft could be
launched from its Gagnotto pneumatic catapults while the ship was in motion and a
retractable canvas drag apron was mounted on the stern, upon which seaplanes could
taxi and then be retrieved by crane while the vessel was underway. The drag apron
recovery system did not prove to be practical however and Giuseppe Miraglia was
forced to stop in order to recover its aircraft. Giuseppe Miraglia did not participate in any
combat operations during its years of service, a fact which was pounced upon by
opponents of naval aviation in the Regia Aeronautica and Regia Marina. It did serve
effectively as an aircraft transport during the Abyssinian War and its repair facilities
were used to service the IMAM Ro.43 reconnaissance aircraft posted aboard other
Regia Marina warships during World War II. Beginning in May 1942, it conducted test
catapult launches of modified Reggiane Re.2000 fighters, which were later embarked
aboard the Littorio-class battleships in an emergency effort to give the vessels a limited
air defense capability. Giuseppe Miraglia is shown here in its 1942 configuration with a
Re.2000 on its bow catapult and Ro.43 reconnaissance aircraft aft, and featured in the
separate aircraft profile.
 Replacing the Europa was the proposed Flugzeugträger II project, the conversion of the
12,350-ton French light cruiser De Grasse captured during the fall of France in June 1940.
Being built by the Arsenal de Lorient shipyard, the ship was only 28 percent complete.
Germany lacked the materials and manpower to undertake the conversion and its location
well within range of UK-based Allied bombers meant it could be attacked easily and
repeatedly, preventing its completion. The project was canceled in February 1943. (Ryan
Noppen Collection)

De Grasse specifications

Dimensions length: 121.2m; beam: 15m; draft: 5.8m

Full 11,500 tons

displacement

Ship’s 196 men plus air crews

complement

Machinery two Rateau-Bretagne geared turbines, fired by four Indret high-pressure boilers, producing
110,000shp and driving two screws at a maximum speed of 32kt

Aircraft 11 Messerschmitt Bf 109T, 12 Junkers Ju 87E.

Catapults two Deutsche Werke compressed air-driven catapults

Hangars one hangar

Armament 12 10.5cm SK C/33 (L/50) antiaircraft guns; 12 3.7cm SK C/30 (L/83) antiaircraft guns; 24 2cm Flak
C/38 (L/65) antiaircraft guns

It languished in the stocks until after the Flugzeugträger I project was

canceled in November 1942. A week later Raeder proposed that the ship be
converted to a carrier to augment the Seydlitz, the sole surviving auxiliary
carrier project – Hitler approved the project on December 3, 1942. It was
planned to operate 11 Bf 109Ts and a dozen Ju 87Es.
The project was surprisingly short-lived, however. Due to lack of shipyard
workers – who could not be motivated to convert the French naval vessel into
a Nazi warship anyway – severe shortage of materials, and the threat of
Allied bombing (it had already been hit twice), the project was canceled in
February 1943. This left the Seydlitz as the Kriegsmarine’s only viable
auxiliary carrier project.
With Hitler’s order to cease work on all capital ships, the conversion of
Seydlitz was finally terminated in June 1943 and the warship was towed to
Königsberg. There it was scuttled on January 29, 1945, before the advancing
Red Army could seize it, but two years later, it was raised by the Soviet
Navy, with the intention of finishing the ship as a heavy cruiser – to be
renamed Poltava – to join its sistership, another incomplete Hipper-class
cruiser, the Petropavlovsk (which was launched as the original KMS Lützow),
acquired in 1940 as partial payment for the German–USSR agreement to split
Poland the year before. However, the project was abandoned in 1950.
ITALY
Experimentation in World War I
Italy became the first nation to utilize aircraft over the battlefront when the
Regio Esercito (Italian Royal Army), deployed early Bleriot and Etrich Taube
monoplanes on reconnaissance and bombardment missions during the Italo-
Turkish War in 1911–12. The Regia Marina had also embraced the new
medium of aviation relatively early. In July 1913, Viceammiraglio Paolo
Thaon di Revel became Capo di Stato Maggiore della Marina, or navy chief
of staff. Thaon di Revel was a supporter of naval aviation and had taken
notice of the innovative work of Capitano del Genio Navale Alessandro
Guidoni. In 1912, Guidoni sketched a design to convert the protected cruiser
Piemonte (a cruiser with an armored deck/protection scheme covering its
vital spaces), commissioned in 1889, into a hybrid aircraft carrier/seaplane
tender. Guidoni’s design removed all of Piemonte’s armament aft of the
funnels and replaced it with a hangar on the rear half of the vessel. Above the
hangar was a 40m take-off platform angled down towards the stern. Aircraft
would exit the hangar via its open sides and be lifted up to the take-off
platform by a crane mounted just aft of the second funnel. Guidoni’s
conversion plan for Piemonte was not approved by Thaon di Revel’s
predecessor but the Admiral thought that the idea of an aviation-capable ship
had merit. Thaon di Revel selected the Regioni-class protected cruiser Elba
for conversion into an aviation vessel as it had been serving as a support ship
for observation balloons since 1907 and Guidoni was tasked with its
redesign. Aft of Elba’s second funnel, a canvas-enclosed hangar was
constructed to house two seaplanes and a 30m (98.4ft) platform was installed
just aft of the hangar; two additional seaplanes could be stored in the open on
the platform or it could be used to support an observation balloon. The
platform was not intended as a take-off deck; rather cranes would lower and
retrieve the vessel’s aircraft from the sea. Elba’s conversion was completed
on June 4, 1914, and it embarked three or four Curtiss Model F flying boats.
Elba’s slow maximum speed of 17.9kt prevented it from participating in fleet
operations and it was found that its aircraft complement was too low to allow
for effective reconnaissance work. Elba operated on a limited basis during the
first half of World War I but was withdrawn from service in July 1916.
 Elba’s limited capabilities were encouraging enough for Thaon di Revel to
later push for a vessel which could carry and effectively operate more
aircraft. Approval was granted for such a purchase in the 1915 naval budget
and Guidoni was ordered to select a merchant vessel suitable for conversion.
He chose the 8,666-ton cargo freighter Quarto, launched in Great Britain in
1895, and drew up plans for its conversion into a seaplane carrier. The ship’s
superstructure was removed and two canvas-enclosed hangars were erected
fore and aft of the mast and funnels, each able to accommodate four
floatplanes or flying boats. A new bridge was mounted on top of the fore
hangar. Cranes lowered and retrieved aircraft from the sides of the hangars,
from which the canvas could be fully retracted. Below decks a workshop was
installed as well as tanks for aviation fuel. Remaining space was used for the
storage of up to eight disassembled aircraft, parts, and ammunition. The
vessel, renamed Europa, entered service with the Regia Marina on October 6,
1915. From its conception, Europa was never intended to serve in fleet
operations; its maximum speed of only 12.2kt did not allow for that. Rather
its role was that of an autonomous mobile seaplane base, hence the attention
given to maintenance and support facilities aboard the ship. For most of the
remainder of the war it served in this role off the port of Valona, the primary
base of operations for the Regio Esercito in Albania. Europa operated a
variety of Curtiss, FBA (Franco-British Aviation Company), and Macchi
flying boats throughout the war. It was decommissioned in September 1920
and subsequently scrapped.
Europa, the Regia Marina’s first effective aviation vessel, in service from 1915 to 1920. Note
the hangars fore and aft. (Naval Heritage and Historical Command 86295)

Interwar projects
The postwar Washington Naval Treaty, designed to limit the size of the
world’s largest navies and signed on February 6, 1922, allowed the Regia
Marina to build a number of aircraft carriers that didn’t exceed a total of
60,000 tons. Thaon di Revel, who had served as Italy’s naval representative
to the Washington Naval Conference, was eager to make the most of this
allotted tonnage and had already advocated for the development of Italian
flush-deck aircraft carriers. The British Royal Navy had commissioned the
world’s first flush-deck aircraft carrier, HMS Argus, in September 1918 and
as early as the following year Thaon di Revel had commissioned a proposal
to convert the unfinished 34,000-ton dreadnought battleship Francesco
Caracciolo into its first flush-deck carrier. Its conversion called for the
installation of a flight deck running almost the entire length of the ship and a
small island. Simultaneously, a design study was undertaken about the
possibility of converting the hulk of the 25,086-ton dreadnought Leonardo da
Vinci into a similar flush-deck carrier. Sunk due to an internal explosion in
the harbor of Taranto in August 1916, likely the work of Austro-Hungarian
agents, the largely intact Leonardo da Vinci was raised in September 1919
and moved to a drydock. Both of these ambitious projects came to an abrupt
end at roughly the same time as the Washington Naval Conference, however,
in the wake of the Biennio Rosso, or Two Red Years, a period of intense
inflation and violent labor uprisings from 1919 to 1920. The economic crisis
in Italy caused by wartime spending and the Biennio Rosso brought a
reduction in the Regia Marina’s budget to an amount lower than immediate
prewar levels. As a result, both conversion projects were canceled and
Leonardo da Vinci and Francesco Caracciolo were scrapped in 1923 and
1926 respectively.
Perhaps more detrimental to the Regia Marina’s development of aircraft
carriers than postwar financial concerns was the fascist political environment
following Benito Mussolini’s rise to power. The fascist leader Italo Balbo
assumed control of the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force), becoming
Sottosegretario di Stato al Ministero dell’Aeronautica (Undersecretary of
State for the Aviation Ministry) in November 1926. Balbo had little
experience in aviation matters prior to this but he quickly fell under the
influence of the strategic air power theories of Guilio Douhet, particularly the
potential role to be played by massed formations of bombers. After the Regia
Aeronautica assumed control of most of the navy’s aviation squadrons in
1931, Balbo subsequently made it clear to the Regia Marina that it had no
business pursuing the development of aircraft carriers; the Regia Aeronautica
would ensure the safety of the skies over Italy’s Mare Nostrum
(Mediterranean Sea). Also opposed to aircraft carrier construction was the
Sottosegretario di Stato al Ministero della Marina (Undersecretary of State
for the Naval Ministry), Ammiraglio di Squadra Domenico Cavagnari, who
led the Regia Marina from 1933 to 1940. Cavagnari was not a staunch
supporter of naval aviation, coming from a cadre within the Regia Marina
which still viewed the battleship as the preferred projection of naval power.
Cavagnari largely accepted the Regia Aeronautica’s tight control over the
majority of Italy’s aviation assets and made little effort to fight for naval
aircraft with strike potential. With regards to aircraft carriers, Cavagnari was
quoted in 1938 as saying before political leaders that the Italian peninsula
was “a natural aircraft carrier bestriding the Mediterranean;” an aircraft
carrier was not necessary as Italy already possessed airfields all across the
Mediterranean.

The launch of the dreadnought battleship Francesco Caracciolo on May 12, 1920, originally
intended to have been armed with eight 381mm guns. Unfinished during World War I,
Francesco Caracciolo’s three sisterships were scrapped after the conflict due to the collapse
of the Italian economy but Caracciolo was considered for conversion into Italy’s first flush-
deck aircraft carrier. (Ryan Noppen Collection)
 Seaplane carrier Giuseppe Miraglia, exiting the Mar Piccolo in Taranto harbor, in southern
Italy. Giuseppe Miraglia was the Regia Marina’s only aircraft vessel in service at the beginning
of World War II. Note the Macchi M.18 seaplanes aboard the ship. (Wikimedia Commons)

Supporters of naval aviation within the leadership of Regia Marina did

sponsor a number of drawing-board designs for aircraft carriers throughout
the 1920s and 1930s but they were considered for construction only under
reactionary circumstances, especially the threats of war with Great Britain
and France during the Abyssinian War and the Spanish Civil War, by both
Mussolini and the heads of the navy. The importance which these naval
aviation advocates placed on the aircraft carrier is clearly evidenced by the
number of carrier projects, listed in the table below, which were drafted and
considered during the interwar years:
The only vessel devoted to air operations which the Regia Marina put into
service during the interwar years was the seaplane carrier Giuseppe Miraglia.
Originally laid down as the railway ferry Città di Messina in the Regio
Arsenale della Spezia yard in March 1921, it was purchased by the Regia
Marina in 1923 for conversion into a seaplane tender, filling the role that had
been played by Europa which had been decommissioned in 1920. Giuseppe
Miraglia represented Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel’s continued interest in
naval aviation and, after the cancelation of the immediate postwar carrier
projects due to lack of funds, was the most extensive aviation vessel he could
secure for the Regia Marina during his tenure as Ministro della Marine from
1922 to 1925. When commissioned in November 1927, Giuseppe Miraglia
could carry 17 seaplanes and, unlike Europa, mounted catapults fore and aft,
allowing aircraft to be launched while the vessel was underway. Giuseppe
Miraglia had a low maximum speed of 21kt, however, rendering it incapable
of serving during fleet combat operations. Thus, like Europa, its primary role
was that of a mobile seaplane base, with its air group used primarily for
reconnaissance duties.
 Admiral Arturo Riccardi (left), head of the Regia Marina from late 1940 until the Italian
capitulation in September 1943, reviewing the crew of a Littorio-class battleship with Admiral
Angelo Iachino (center) and Il Duce Benito Mussolini (right) in June 1942. Riccardi approved
the Regia Marina’s first flush-deck carrier, Aquila, shortly after becoming navy chief.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Giuseppe Miraglia specifications

Dimensions length: 121.2m; beam: 15m; draft: 5.8m

Full 5,913 tons

displacement

Ship’s 196 men plus air crews

complement

Machinery two Parsons geared turbines, fired by eight Yarrow boilers, producing 16,700shp and driving two
screws at a maximum speed of 21kt
 Aircraft 17 total aircraft (1927–31: Macchi M.18; 1931-37: CANT 25; 1937–43: IMAM Ro.43)

Catapults two Gagnotto catapults, fore and aft

Hangars two hangars housing five and six aircraft respectively and two workshops each housing three
disassembled aircraft

Armament four cannone da 102mm/35 Mod. 1914 antiaircraft guns; 12 Breda Modello 31 13.2mm machine
guns

IMAM Ro.43 Specifications

Dimensions length: 9.7m / wingspan:11.6m

Powerplant 700hp Piaggio P.X R. radial engine

Maximum 300km/h
speed

Range 800–1,500km

Ceiling 6,600m

Armament two 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns, one fuselage-mounted forward-firing and one ring-
mounted in the observer’s cockpit

Crew two

Giuseppe Miraglia’s limited capabilities played into the hands of the Regia
Aeronautica’s leadership and battleship-minded admirals of the Regia
Marina, both claiming that a much more expensive proper aircraft carrier
would not be able to perform many more duties than the seaplane carrier and
hence reinforcing their argument that reconnaissance should be the sole
mission of naval aviation. They also made the case that aircraft carriers and
further seaplane tenders were redundant due to the installation of catapults
and reconnaissance seaplanes aboard larger warships, beginning with the
Trento-class heavy cruisers that were commissioned in 1928–29. Giuseppe
Miraglia nevertheless served well in its intended role as a seaplane carrier
and in the experimentation of different catapult-launched aircraft; its aircraft,
as well as those embarked aboard the Regia Marina’s heavy and light
cruisers, were the extent of Italian shipboard aviation at the beginning of
World War II.
 The aircraft carrier Aquila began its life as the Genoa-based Navigazione Generale Italiana
line’s 32,583-ton liner Roma, shown here in a period postcard. Built by the Ansaldo shipyards,
it entered service in September 1926 and sailed on the Genoa–New York transatlantic route.
(Ryan Noppen Collection)

Aquila
When Italy entered the war against Great Britain and France on June 11,
1940, Admiral Cavagnari worried little about the potential threat posed by
British and French aircraft to his warships. Mussolini had promised a brief
war with the British, believing that a rapid show of force would compel them
to seek terms by the autumn of 1940. Cavagnari’s optimism was based solely
on this promise, however, as the ability of the Regia Aeronautica to defend
the skies over the Regia Marina’s theaters of operation had been called into
question in the months leading up to Italy’s entry into the war. In a meeting
with Mussolini and the army and navy chiefs of staff in September 1939,
Sottosegretario di Stato al Ministero dell’Aeronautica Giuseppe Valle,
Balbo’s successor as head of the Regia Aeronautica, was forced to admit that
the air force’s capabilities had been inflated in recent years and that it was
largely unprepared for war. Valle was sacked two months later and his
replacement, Generale di Squadra Aerea Francesco Pricolo, was still
remedying the problems left behind by Valle when Mussolini led Italy into
the war. Pricolo, however, had been a protégé of Balbo and was an opponent
of naval aviation; he paid only lip service to the Regia Aeronautica’s
antishipping capabilities in the months leading up to June.
The first months of Italy’s involvement in the war went poorly for the
Regia Marina, highlighting the Regia Aeronautica’s inability both to counter
the British Royal Navy at sea and to protect the Regia Marina from British air
attack. At the Battle of Punta Stilo on July 8–9, 1940, 198 Regia Aeronautica
bombers failed to inflict any serious damage against a force of 32 British
warships, while a number of the bombers mistakenly attacked a countering
Regia Marina force. At the Battle of Taranto on the evening of November
11–12, 1940, 20 Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers, launched from the
British carrier HMS Illustrious, attacked and sank the battleships Littorio,
Caio Duilio, and Conte di Cavour in a surprise nighttime strike in Taranto
harbor. The Regia Aeronautica failed to detect the approach and departure of
the British task force as well as failing to provide a defense for the Regia
Marina’s base. The catastrophe at Taranto, compounded by other failures at
sea since June, brought about Cavagnari’s dismissal on December 7, 1940.
Recognizing the Regia Aeronautica’s failures at sea and the now proven
capabilities of naval air power, clearly demonstrated by the British,
Ammiraglio di Squadra designato d’Armata Arturo Riccardi, Cavagnari’s
replacement as Sottosegretario di Stato al Ministero della Marina,
immediately called for the conversion of the ocean liner Roma (already
considered for conversion in 1936) into a flush-deck aircraft carrier and a
feasibility study into the conversion of the then-building battleship Impero
into a carrier. Riccardi had a more favorable opinion than his predecessor and
Mussolini was finally convinced of the importance of aircraft carriers,
ordering Roma’s conversion on January 7, 1941. Mussolini further insisted
upon Pricolo’s and the Regia Aeronautica’s cooperation in the establishment
of an air group for Roma as well as the development of capable carrier-based
aircraft. After a meeting of the military chiefs-of-staff on July 9, 1941, the
parameters of the Roma carrier project were established and the liner was
towed to the Ansaldo Officine Allestimento e Riparazioni Navi shipyard in
Genoa for conversion.
Renamed Aquila (Eagle), work immediately began on the demolition of
Roma’s superstructure while its final conversion design was completed. As
the Regia Marina intended Aquila to be a true fleet carrier, able to accompany
fast battleships and cruisers on combat operations, the engineers overseeing
its conversion intended to replace Roma’s original powerplant of eight
coupled turbines, which generated 34,000hp for a maximum speed of 22kt.
The powerplants of the two canceled Capitani Romani-class light cruisers
Cornelio Silla and Paolo Emilio, two sets of two Belluzzo high-pressure/low-
pressure paired turbines, were commandeered for this purpose. When
installed to Aquila’s four shafts, they gave the vessel a much-improved
maximum speed of 30kt, the same as the Littorio-class fast battleships.
Aquila’s designers were equally creative with their protection scheme for the
vessel’s hull. The Regia Marina’s favored Pugliese liquid-filled-cylinder
underwater protection system could not be applied to Aquila’s pre-existing
hull. Instead, bulges were added to the hull sides and partially filled with
concrete, intended to help absorb the blast effects from a torpedo explosion
and prevent splinter damage. In tests, this ersatz system proved to be
surprisingly effective.
Aquila specifications

Dimensions length: 231.4m; beam: 35.8m; draft: 7.4m

Full 27,800 tons

displacement

Ship’s 1,532 men

complement

Machinery four Belluzzo geared turbines, fired by eight boilers, producing 151,000shp and driving two screws
at a maximum speed of 30kt

Aircraft 51 Reggiane Re.2001OR fighter-bombers

Catapults two Deutsche Werke compressed air-driven catapults

Hangars one hangar divided into four compartments

Range 10,186km at 18kt

Protection 60–80mm horizontal plate around aviation fuel tanks and magazines; concrete-filled bulges

Armament eight OTO cannone 135mm/45 Modello 1938 dual-purpose guns in individual shielded mounts, four
on each side amidships (135mm/45 gun had a range at 45º elevation of 19,600m and had an
elevation range of -5º to 45º; six to seven shells could be fired per minute)
12 Ansaldo-Terni cannone 65mm/64 Modello 1939 antiaircraft guns in individual shielded mounts,
six on each side (65mm/64 gun had a range at 45º elevation of 7,500m and had an elevation range
of -10º to 80º; 20 shells could be fired per minute)
132 Breda 20mm/65 Modello 1935 antiaircraft guns in 22 six-barreled mounts, primarily
concentrated on the island and amidships (20mm/65 gun had a range at 45º elevation of 5,500m
and had an elevation range of -10º to 90º; 240 rounds could be fired per minute)
 Aquila, under camouflage netting, along a wharf in the Ansaldo yards in Genoa following its
removal from drydock in late autumn 1942. (Ryan Noppen Collection)

Above the machinery spaces, a 524.9ft (160m)-long single hangar was

built into the upper section of the hull and was divided into four sections by
fire doors. The 694.2ft (211.6m) partially armored flight deck was
constructed above. A substantial island was mounted starboard amidships and
contained a funnel, navigation bridge, pilot ready room, fire control station,
and flight operations center. The island also housed the Regia Marina’s new
EC3/ter Gufo (owl) naval search radar equipment and 36 Breda 20mm/65
Mod. 1935 antiaircraft cannon in six six-mounts, three fore and three aft. The
remaining antiaircraft armament consisted of an additional 96 20mm cannon,
12 65mm cannon, and eight 135mm cannon in sponsons or on platforms
mounted around the hull, just below the flight deck. When considering
Aquila’s aviation equipment, however, there was an immediate realization by
the ship’s designers that they had a steep learning curve ahead of them
because the navy had only limited experience with aircraft catapults and no
experience with arresting gear systems for landing wheeled aircraft on a
flight deck, as the Regia Marina’s previous carrier projects had never the left
drawing board. These issues were surprisingly rectified in November 1941
when a commission of Regia Marina and Regia Aeronautica officers
examined the German Kriegsmarine’s aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, then
sitting incomplete in the port of Gotenhafen. The Kriegsmarine shared all of
its technical knowledge regarding carriers with the Italian commission and
offered the catapults, elevators, and arrestor gear which had been
manufactured for the Graf Zeppelin’s canceled sistership. With this generous
German assistance, the Regia Marina suddenly had the specialized
components which would have taken months of independent development.
 Bombs targeting Genoa harbor on May 28, 1944 during a raid by B-24s of the 455th Bomb
Group, 741st Bomb Squadron, 15th Air Force. Aquila is the large vessel along the wharf in the
upper right of the photograph. (National Archives 204915200)

Obtaining capable aircraft for Aquila proved to be a much lengthier

process than obtaining the carrier’s specialized aviation equipment. Already
at the meeting of the chiefs-of-staff on July 9, 1941, the Regia Marina
requested a naval variant, with tailhook and folding wings, of the Regia
Aeronautica’s Reggiane Re.2000 Falco I fighter. A month earlier the Regia
Marina had begun experiments in developing a catapult-launched variant of
the Re.2000 for use aboard its battleships, a sign of how desperate the Regia
Marina had become for any degree of air cover. General Pricolo stated that
the development and manufacture of a naval variant of the Re.2000 would
require two years, and was unwilling to prioritize its development over other
Regia Aeronautica priorities. Fortuitously for the Regia Marina, General
Pricolo was replaced as Sottosegretario di Stato al Ministero dell’Aeronautica
on November 15, 1941 by Generale di Squadra Aerea Rino Corso Fougier, an
officer who saw the necessity of aircraft carriers as well as the need for air
force–navy cooperation. Fougier founded a new study group, Organizzazione
Roma (Roma Organization – referencing the carrier’s previous name), to
select suitable aircraft for Aquila and was willing to divert Regia Aeronautica
aircraft orders towards the establishment of the carrier’s air wing; Aquila’s
aircraft and pilots were to remain under direct Regia Aeronautica control,
however. Toward the end of 1941 it became apparent that the Re.2000 was
inadequate for carrier use and both the Regia Marina and Organizzazione
Roma, with General Fougier’s blessing, selected the new Reggiane Re.2001
Falco II fighter for development into a carrier-based fighter-bomber. The
Re.2001 possessed a more powerful and reliable engine, the 1,175hp Alfa-
Romeo R.A.1000 R.C.41-I Monsone inline engine, compared to the
Re.2000’s unreliable 1,000hp Piaggio P.XI R.C.40 radial engine. The
additional power allowed the Re.2001 to carry a potential payload of a
1,323lb (600kg) aerial torpedo (the Re.2001G variant) or a 1,389lb (630kg)
antishipping bomb (Re.2001GV variant).
Aerial photograph of Aquila, taken on a United States Army Air Corps reconnaissance mission
over Genoa. (National Archives 204915209)

1. Aircraft carrier Aquila

The installation of the two Deutsche Werke catapults aboard Aquila required the use of
the same collapsible launch carriage system, with all its limitations, as was to be used
aboard the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. The launch process was time-
consuming as each catapult could only launch one aircraft per minute and the high-
pressure reservoir contained only enough compressed air to launch up to nine aircraft.
Another problem was that a torpedo mounted to a Reggiane Re.2001OR blocked the
attachment points for the catapult carriage, prohibiting the use of the catapults for
aircraft carrying torpedoes. Torpedo-equipped Re.2001ORs would have had to use the
full length of the flight deck to take off, prohibiting the congregating of multiple aircraft at
the rear of the flight deck, further delaying the take-off time for an air group. The Aquila
could carry a maximum of 51 Re.2001OR fighter-bombers stowed in the following
manner: 26 stored in the hangar; 15 suspended from the hangar roof; and ten parked
on the flight deck. Aquila is shown here in a hypothetical camouflage scheme, similar to
ones applied to larger Regia Marina vessels in 1943. Also shown is a Reggiane
Re.2001OR fighter-bomber equipped with a 600kg aerial torpedo.
2. Escort carrier Sparviero
As Sparviero’s conversion design was being prepared, Regia Marina engineers hoped
to add a small island and two German compressed air catapults to the vessel. The
catapults would have allowed for the operation of torpedo- and bomb-equipped
Re.2001OR fighter bombers, as intended aboard Aquila. 35 Re.2001ORs would have
comprised Sparviero’s air wing under these circumstances. Without access to
specialized German equipment after the Kriegsmarine resumed work on its own aircraft
carriers and lacking time to develop its own equipment, the Regia Marina was forced to
keep Sparviero’s conversion to a simplified version of the 1936 Roma project, lacking
the island, catapults, and arrestor gear. It is unlikely that the Re.2001OR could have
taken off carrying a payload without the assistance of a catapult, limiting the aircraft’s
role to only air defense. Given this and the Re.2001OR’s production delays, it was
eventually concluded that another aircraft was needed. The IMAM Ro.63, a light-weight,
high-wing reconnaissance aircraft similar to the German Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, was
then considered due to its short-take-off and landing capabilities. With a maximum
speed of only 203 km/h (126 mph), the Ro.63 was hardly considered as a combat
aircraft but Regia Marina planners believed that the aircraft could be employed in an
antisubmarine, or ASW, role. An order for Ro.63s for Sparviero was placed but the
conversion project was canceled before any of the aircraft were manufactured.
Sparviero is shown here according to its simplified conversion design.
Reggiane Re.2001OR specifications

Dimensions length: 8.4m

wingspan: 11m

Powerplant 1,175hp Alfa-Romeo R.A.1000 R.C.41-I Monsone inline engine

Maximum 542km/h
speed

Range 1,100km

Ceiling 11,000m

Armament two 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns on the fuselage, two 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine
guns in the wings

Payload one 1390lb (630kg) antishipping bomb or one 1,323lb (600kg) aerial torpedo

Crew one

The Regia Aeronautica’s first production order to include a navalized version

– the Re.2001OR (for Organizzazione Roma) – was placed in the spring of
1941 and totaled 120 of the type, 50 of which were to be Re.2001ORs. A
year later, in May 1942, this order was changed to 47 Re.2001 fighters and 39
Re.2001CB (caccia-bombardiere or fighter-bombers) capable of carrying up
to a 550lb (250kg) bomb, as well as two “light-weight” Re.2001ORs for
catapult trials. Twelve land-based versions were to be modified with arrestor
hooks for carrier operations. The next order, placed in August 1942,
reinstated the production of 50 Re.2001ORs. During the second half of 1942
and early 1943, two prototype Re.2001ORs were tested extensively at the
Regia Aeronautica’s airfield at Sant’Egidio near Perugia where a carrier
flight deck mock-up had been constructed for training purposes. In the event
only ten navalized versions of the Re.2001 were completed in early 1943 and
the Regia Aeronautica redirected that the 50 Re.2001ORs be produced as
Re.2001CN (caccia-notturno) night fighters.

G Operation Toast, April 18–19, 1945

As Allied planners made their final preparations for Operation Grapeshot, an offensive
across northern Italy in April 1945, they realized that Aquila, moored derelict in Genoa,
could be used by the Germans as a blockship to close the entrance between the old
and new harbors in the port city. Number One Special Force of the British Special
Operations Executive (SOE) was tasked with sinking Aquila before it could be used in
this manner and Italian specialists from the Regia Marina’s “Mariassalto” unit were
recruited for the mission. The Mariassalto was made up of veterans of Decima Flottiglia
MAS commando unit who had joined the Allied cause following the Italian armistice. At
the outset of what was dubbed Operation Toast on the afternoon of April 18, 1945, the
Regia Marina destroyer Legionario, leading a small assault force, left the Allied
occupied port of Leghorn and proceeded towards Genoa. Later that night upon
approaching the port, Legionario lowered two MTSM (Motoscafo da Turismo Silurante
Modificato) motor torpedo boats into the water which in turn headed closer to Genoa.
Aboard the MTSM boats were two British Chariot manned torpedoes, similar to the
Italian Maiali (pig) human torpedoes successfully used by the Decima Flottiglia MAS
throughout the war. A few miles off the harbor entrance, the Chariots disembarked. One
encountered a breakdown a mile from the harbor entrance and had to abort but the
second, operated by Sottotenente di Vascello Nicola Conte and Sottocapo Evelino
Marcolini, entered the harbor and made its way to the Calata Canzio wharf where Aquila
was moored. The warhead from the Chariot was left on the harbor bottom beneath the
port side of the carrier and the divers were able to exit the harbor aboard the Chariot,
being picked up by the waiting MTSM boat off the coast. The warhead detonated the
following morning but only managed to rupture the portside cement-filled bulge;
ironically this explosion demonstrated the integrity of Aquila’s ersatz torpedo protection
system. Still afloat, the Germans moved Aquila to the narrow passage between the old
and new harbors on the evening of April 23–24, 1945, intent on sinking it but sabotage
by Italian dockyard workers foiled the German attempt to scuttle it. The Germans were
forced to evacuate Genoa before another scuttling attempt could be made and Aquila
fell into Allied hands on April 27, 1945.
 Reggiane Re.2001 fighter. The Regia Aeronautica hoped to equip Aquila’s air wing with
Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers but German aircraft exports to Italy were very limited. An
Italian-manufactured aircraft was needed and the Regia Aeronautica decided to develop
fighter-bomber and torpedo-carrying variants of the Re.2001. (Wikimedia Commons)

Despite the optimism from the new level of cooperation between the Regia
Marina and Regia Aeronautica, wartime realities slowed the construction and
fitting out of Aquila. Ansaldo originally promised a completion time of 12
months for Aquila but by October 1942 it was still in drydock awaiting the
installation of its bulges and additional armor. The installation of the German
flight deck equipment was also still underway. Material and labor shortages
were the primary causes for the delay; after an inquiry by Admiral Riccardi,
Ansaldo recalculated the final delivery time to be July 1943. Further delay
was caused by five British Royal Air Force bombardments of Genoa, some
specifically targeting the Ansaldo yards, between October 22 and November
16, 1942. Aquila’s flight deck received some light damage and it was taken
out of drydock and towed to a dock in the yard. It was covered with
camouflage netting to make it resemble a dock from the air while the nearby
hull of the unfinished cruiser Cornelio Silla was covered with metal plates,
making it appear as a carrier from the air; the ruse proved surprisingly
effective. Toward the end of April 1943, Aquila’s machinery installation was
finally completed and its turbines were given a stationary test while it
remained moored alongside its dock. All work on the carrier was ordered
halted on June 22, 1943, as all available labor and resources were reassigned
to the construction of more-essential light vessels. The Italian armistice with
Allied forces on September 8, 1943 sealed Aquila’s fate, however. After the
German occupation of Genoa, German engineering teams removed weapons,
electrical equipment, and any other usable materials from the vessel. Its hulk
remained in place until it was damaged in an air raid by Allied bombers in
June 1944 and then moved to a disused pier along the Calata Canzio wharf.
The Germans attempted to use Aquila as a blockship when they evacuated
Genoa on April 24, 1945, but it failed to sink. Aquila’s hulk remained in
Genoa until 1949 when it was towed to La Spezia and later scrapped there in
1952.

The Navigazione Generale Italiana line’s 32,650-ton liner Augustus, requisitioned in July 1942
for conversion into the escort carrier Sparviero. Built by Ansaldo and first sailing in November
1927, Augustus differed from its near-sister Roma in that it was powered by four Savoja-MAN
diesel engines. (Ryan Noppen Collection)

Sparviero
Aquila was not the Regia Marina’s only attempt to put an aircraft carrier into
service during the war. On July 1, 1942, Roma’s near-sister, the liner MS
Augustus, was also commandeered for conversion into a carrier. By the
second half of 1942, the Regia Marina was desperate to protect supply
convoys to North Africa and it was decided to reconstruct Augustus into an
escort carrier, rechristened Sparviero. The Regia Marina’s designers turned to
a set of preliminary plans which had been drafted in 1936 for a relatively
simple conversion of the liner Roma (not to be confused with a more
extensive conversion noted previously in the text) for the sake of expediency.
The plans called for the removal of the liner’s superstructure, to be replaced
with a hangar deck and a 155m x 25m (508.5ft x 82ft) flight deck above.
Pultruding fore from the flight deck was an additional 50m x 5m (164ft x
16.4ft) extension, intended to house a single pneumatic catapult; this feature
was removed in Sparviero’s conversion design, with the main flight deck
lengthened to a total of 180m (590.5ft). Unlike Aquila, Sparviero retained its
original powerplant in order to expedite its conversion. Its four Savoja-MAN
diesel engines produced a maximum speed of only 18kt but that was
considered sufficient for convoy escort duties. Like its near-sister, however, it
would receive a similar concrete-filled bulge protection scheme. Sparviero’s
conversion design resembled similar wartime Imperial Japanese Navy
merchant-escort carrier conversions as it had no island and its bridge was
housed beneath the flight deck fore. Beginning in October 1942, work began
on the removal of the superstructure of the vessel, which was completed by
the end of the year. During that time engineers made a revised conversion
plan which would give Sparviero a small island to starboard and two German
compressed air catapults. This plan was quickly dropped, however, when the
Kriegsmarine was unable to provide catapults and arresting gear due to the
sudden resumption of its own aircraft carrier program. No further work on
Sparviero took place before April 1943 when the project was suspended; due
to the collapse of the North African front that spring, there was no longer an
immediate need for an escort carrier. Sparviero’s hulk sat abandoned until
October 5, 1944, when the Germans sank it as a blockship in the eastern
entrance to Genoa’s harbor. Its wreck was removed and scrapped in 1947.
The Eastern inlet, between the Molo Cagni and the Molo duca di Galliera, leading into Genoa
harbor, photographed at the end of World War II. The Germans sank several ships to block
the inlet including Sparviero, whose bow is protruding from the water along the mole at the
bottom left of the photograph. (Ryan Noppen Collection)

Sparviero specifications

Dimensions length: 216.7m; beam: 34m; draft: 9.2m

Full 28,000 tons

displacement

Ship’s 1,420 men

complement

Machinery four Savoja MAN diesel engines, producing 28,000shp and driving four screws at a maximum
speed of 18kt

Aircraft 35 Reggiane Re.2001OR fighter-bombers or 35 IMAM Ro.63 ASW aircraft

Hangars one

Protection 60–80mm horizontal plate around aviation fuel tanks and magazines; concrete-filled bulges

Armament eight OTO cannone 135mm/45 Modello 1938 dual-purpose guns in individual shielded mounts
12 Ansaldo-Terni cannone 65mm/64 Modello 1939 antiaircraft guns in individual shielded
mounts
24 Breda 20mm/65 Modello 1935 antiaircraft guns in four six-barreled mounts

Bolzano
The final aircraft carrier conversion project considered by the Regia Marina
during World War II showed just how desperate the navy’s need for air cover
for its convoys had become, and the desperate extent to which the navy was
willing to go to acquire it. On August 13, 1942, the heavy cruiser Bolzano
was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Unbroken and the stricken
vessel was beached off the island of Panarea, north of Sicily. After being
patched up and towed to La Spezia for repairs in October 1942, a design
study was initiated for the conversion of Bolzano into a nave lanciaerei, or
aircraft launch vessel. The resulting conversion design called for the removal
of Bolzano’s superstructure and armament fore of the aft funnel, to be
replaced with a “flight deck” with a track running down the center of it.
Carriages, mounting the vessel’s aircraft, were aligned on the track which
ended at two diagonally placed catapults installed on the ship’s bow. It was
intended that 12 Re.2001ORs be embarked, ten lined up along the flight deck
track and one on each catapult. Bolzano’s intended role would have been
similar to that of the British Catapult Aircraft Merchant (CAM) ships, used
by the Royal Navy before escort carriers were available in adequate numbers:
to provide emergency air cover for convoys, as the fighters launched would
have to find a land base or ditch after being launched. In addition to the
above-waterline changes, two of the cruisers’ ten boilers were to be removed,
decreasing the vessel’s maximum horsepower from 150,000hp to 120,000hp
but creating 3,500 cubic meters of cargo space; such was the desperate need
for supplies to get to North Africa at the time. This desperate conversion plan
never went beyond a preliminary stage, however, as its damage from
Unbroken’s torpedo had not even been repaired by the time of the Axis
surrender in North Africa in May 1943 due to labor and material shortages.
As with Sparviero, work on Bolzano was abandoned as there was no further
need for escort operations. On the night of June 21–22, 1944, a team of
British and Italian commandos sank Bolzano in La Spezia harbor using a
British Chariot manned torpedo.
 Heavy cruiser Bolzano, beached off the island of Panarea, north of Sicily, after being
torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Unbroken on August 13, 1942. The proposal to
radically modify Bolzano into an aircraft launch vessel/fast cargo vessel showed just how
desperate the Regia Marina was for aircraft at this stage of the war. (Ryan Noppen Collection)
CONCLUSION
On the surface, the tangible development of Italian aircraft carriers during
World War II can be easily summed up as a case of too little, too late. The
efforts of those who supported the development of aircraft carriers and who
proposed multiple projects throughout the interwar years were defeated by a
combination of lack of financial resources, the largely battleship-minded
leadership of the Regia Marina, and the unwillingness of the Regia
Aeronautica to support the development of naval aviation. The Marina
Militare, the successor organization to the Regia Marina, finally
commissioned Italy’s first aircraft carrier, Giuseppe Garibaldi, in 1985, 40
years after the end of World War II.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Douglas C. Dildy is a retired US Air Force colonel with approximately
3,200 hours of fast jet time. He is a USAF Academy graduate with a
Masters degree in Political Science and has authored numerous
books, including To Defeat the Few for Osprey. He contributes
regularly to the modelling magazine Small Air Forces Observer and
lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Ryan K. Noppen is a military author and consultant originally from

Kalamazoo, Michigan and holds a Master of Arts degree in European
History from Purdue University. A scholar of Dutch, German, and
Central European military history, he has published a major history of
Dutch air power and has written several titles for Osprey. He lives in
California, USA.
ILLUSTRATOR
Paul Wright has painted ships of all kinds for most of his career,
specializing in steel and steam warships from the late 19th century to
the present day. Paul’s art has illustrated the works of Patrick O’Brian,
Dudley Pope and C.S. Forester amongst others, and hangs in many
corporate and private collections all over the world. A Member of the
Royal Society of Marine Artists, Paul lives and works in Surrey.
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