nazi aircraft-carrier "Graf Zeppelin" discovered?

[Dan D]

German tabloid press magazin "Bild" reports that the Polish oil company "Petrobaltic" has probably discovered the wreck of the nazi aircraft-carrier "Graf Zeppelin" in 80 m depth 55 km ahead of the Polish harbour Wladyslawowo. Graf Zeppelin was the only aircraft-carrier ever built in Germany which never saw action because the ship never was finished. The fate of the Graf Zeppelin has always been unsettled. The Polish Navy is now trying to verify if the huge wreck is the Graf Zeppelin.
http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/news/startseite/startbuehne.html (http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/news/startseite/startbuehne.html)
(G)
History of the carrier:
http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/carrier/grafzeppelin/history.html
(E)

Wreck divers might get excited, because the only carrier you can dive to at present is the American "Saratoga" which was sunk 1946 at the Bikini-Atoll during atomic bombs testing.

[Ducimus]

Anything by a tabloid you can almost rest assured, is fictional garbage designed to sell more copies. The tabloid link you give, it may as well say, "Elvis is alive!"

[Onkel Neal]

Very interesting find, thanks, Dan.:yep:

[Skybird]

Even did not know that such a thing existed! But yes, be careful before taking the info for real, "Bild" is not really a credible source.

[AG124]

It is possible that the surrendered Pocket Battleship Lutzow was sunk as a target too, instead of being scrapped as has usually been assumed. Soviet records can be spotty.:yep:

Wreck divers might get excited, because the only carrier you can dive to at present is the American "Saratoga" which was sunk 1946 at the Bikini-Atoll during atomic bombs testing.

Well, they also have the USS Oriskany now.:hmm: But I am sure they wouldn't mind another.

[Dan D]

I
Well, they also have the USS Oriskany now.:hmm: But I am sure they wouldn't mind another.
Yes, I forgot that one. It was a topic here lately.

According to SPON (Spiegel online), a speaker of the Polish navy has confirmed today to the Polish radio station "Radio RMF" that the wreck is the "Graf Zeppelin" indeed. The Polish navy has done some dives and sonar scans.

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,673139,00.jpg
http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,428745,00.html
(G)

German military historian Ulrich Israel says in the arcticle that it was good that the ship was never completed because it would have meant no military advantage, yet would have cost numerous lifes because it would have been a matter of prestige for the Brits to sink her as soon as possible ("Sink the Graf Zeppelin"!) like they had hunted down the "Bismarck".
The German Kriegsmarine was probably thinking the same. With the few surface ships they had, all they could have done, was to "go under struggling respectably" ( Großadmiral Raeder) which is military nonsense, so in the end, no carrier for Adolf to play with.
The article also says that according to International Law of the Sea the wreck is property of the Federal Banana Republic Germany and that the Soviets used the ship for testing on 14th August 1947 to find out how to best sink an aircraft-carrier like, let's say, an American aircraft-carrier.

[Oberon]

I can see some design ideas in that pic that remind me of the Kuznetsov a bit.

[Saukko]

In wikipedia there is a link to Polish site that confirms it, the wreck is Graf Zeppelin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_aircraft_carrier_Graf_Zeppelin

http://www.rmf.fm/fakty/?id=103221

Cool, but I was hoping that she was sink in Gulf of Finland, heh.

[STEED]

We will have to wait and see if they have found the Graf Zeppelin.

[hyperion2206]

I think I've read (on Spiegel Online) that the Polish Navy has confirmed that the ship is the Graf Zeppelin.

[lesrae]

There was an article in The Times about it today: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2287104,00.html

[UglyMowgli]

there is some sonar iamges of the ship here (at the end of the page)

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=86953&page=3
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/dailypix/30781645.jpg

[Dan D]

I just heard that the old Avalon hill game "War at Sea" has an operational Graf Zeppelin in its expansion packs. This is great for "what if" scenarios. Would the Graf Zep with a high speed of 33 knots been sunk by the Royal navy, if we keep in mind, that only one carrier (HMS Glorious) was sunk in WW2 by surface ships?
Anybody owns that game?