Polish Navy finds remains of only Nazi aircraft carrier

[kineneb]

just heard on the BBC world service- no web source yet posted

The Polish Navy has discovered the remains of the Nazi aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin. Its exact location has remained a Soviet secret since 1947.

I suppose there will be more info later.

Here is a history of the Graf Zeppelin:
http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/carrier/grafzeppelin/history.html

[Ezlivin]

1. Did it have a "Mission Accomplished" banner pinned to it?

Seems fitting, somehow.

[kineneb]

2. not that I know of

but I did have trouble with the concept of "Polish Navy" (appoligies to all people of Polish origin)...kind of like "Swiss Navy" but without the humor factor...then I realized that they do have a decent quantity of seacoast...

Apparently parts of the ship were salvaged before its sinking, and continued to be used on a(?) Soviet ship into the 1960s. Good engineering, anyway.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

3. Thanks - pretty interesting

It's ironic that a lot of Nazi technology helped build up the US & soviet space program, jets, & rockets. They had something in the history channel about German long distance bombers that could reach NY. Imagine if they had nuclear weapons & these planes.

[acmejack]

4. fw condor 200

The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 was a German all-metal four-engined monoplane that entered service as an airliner and later as long range reconnaissance and anti-shipping bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe. It was the very first airplane to fly non-stop between Berlin and New York making the journey on August 10, 1938 in 24 hours and 56 minutes. The return trip on August 13 1938 took only 19 hours and 47 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fw_200_Condor