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I was exaggerating. It just seems ridiculous to me that the Kreigsmarine could have taken on Gibraltar with whatever it could have come up with in the way of a carrier battle group.Not sure what you mean by "taken" but TF58 at it's height was probably going to wreck any single installation they set their sights on. We are talking mustering an 800+ plane strike force after all.
AFAIK no one else heated the oil in this way. But then again everyone else operated a system of warming their aircraft engines through before take off, usually while ranged on the flight deck or, in the case of the US carriers with open hangars, occasionally on the hangar deck. The German system was designed to allow engines to be started immediately they were delivered to the flight deck.Interesting. Did anyone else drain the oil and heat it separately? Did they have separate oil tanks for each engine? Otherwise it could be potentially disastrous if one engine on the verge of seizing has it's oil drained into a common tank and contaminates everybody's oil with metal shavings or unwanted chemicals (like petrol blown past cylinder rings..)?
AFAIK no one else heated the oil in this way. But then again everyone else operated a system of warming their aircraft engines through before take off, usually while ranged on the flight deck or, in the case of the US carriers with open hangars, occasionally on the hangar deck. The German system was designed to allow engines to be started immediately they were delivered to the flight deck.
It would however seem odd that, having gone to all the trouble of installing this system to warm the oil, that they would not have included some form of filtration system to ensure the oil was not being contaminated in the way you suggest. German efficiency & all that.
Understood. I've got a pic and vid of the carrier trolley above.This is NOT the trolley used with the hydraulic catapults on the carriers.
How did Hitler expect Germany to economically survive without war until 1944?I get that hull for capital ship takes time, but Hitler wasn't predicting war until '44, so Raeder had time to build a "training carrier" before committing to the ultimate solution.
Years ago I considered a novel based on Graf Zeppelin v. a US/RN CVE force in the North Atlantic.
Then I looked closer.
The KM had the Japanese and British navies as examples of how to build and operate carriers--and inevitably ignored those lessons. Short version: the Germans chose the worst options in what mattered most: handling and launching aircraft. Mounted the planes on launch dollies on the hangar deck and used recessed tracks "on the roof" to move the contraptions into position for a tail-up launch.
And then...
decided on compressed air catapults instead of hydraulic when the CA versions were limited to 18 cycles (including two test shots) before recharging. Which apparently took hours.
Ach du Lieber!
Water contamination of petrol supplies was a problem for the RN throughout the war. In the days leading up to Taranto for example Illustrious lost 3 Swordfish due it was thought to this cause. The result was that all her aircraft had to have their tanks flushed & filled using chamois leathers to absorb the water. That water, along with sand and a wierd form of algae, had come from the tanker she had filled that particular petrol tank from. There were other incidents as the war went on, particularly in colder regions where the water seems to have come from condensation IIRC.I'm sure they must had planned to use filters, and while those can filter out solid metal particles, those won't help e.g. with petrol contamination, which was an issue that severely affected the LW during WWII. But presumably those issues weren't foreseen when GZ was being designed, so in a way hard to fault them for it..
Lufthansa had been using compressed air catapult systems on catapult ships for mail planes for some time. HSwMs Gotland is using German compressed air catapult as do K & Leipzig class cruisers (5) and Deutschland armoured ships (3). Given KM has that knowledge already, another 9 under construction for planned BB/CAs, its really not surprising that they didn't reinvent the wheel for 4 CV catapults.Years ago I considered a novel based on Graf Zeppelin v. a US/RN CVE force in the North Atlantic.
Then I looked closer.
The KM had the Japanese and British navies as examples of how to build and operate carriers--and inevitably ignored those lessons. Short version: the Germans chose the worst options in what mattered most: handling and launching aircraft. Mounted the planes on launch dollies on the hangar deck and used recessed tracks "on the roof" to move the contraptions into position for a tail-up launch.
And then...
decided on compressed air catapults instead of hydraulic when the CA versions were limited to 18 cycles (including two test shots) before recharging. Which apparently took hours.
Ach du Lieber!
How serious were studies in '33-34? Reichmarine did studies in late 20s but there was no hope of building CV, so they were paper exercises.The original studies for a German carrier were carried out in late 1933 to early 1934 but were hampered by the same question that other navies had, and to which I have referred to before i.e what is the carrier for?
During the 1935 Navy Days (held at the end of July beginning of Aug) a delegation of German naval architects visited HMS Furious but were able to "gain little insight". By then Furious no catapults or crash barrier (and possibly no arrester gear) and still had her 5.5" armament so hardly represented the latest in carrier design.
They followed that up with a visit to Japan where they were able to visit Akagi (this was just before she began her Oct 1935 - Aug 1938 reconstruction). They left "with plans for such items as the central elevator and aircraft arrestor gear, but declined Japanese offers for a long-term study of their carriers."
The orders for the first two ships were then placed in Nov 1935.
So it looks like they left visiting other carriers a bit late in the design process. Maybe Britain was a bit more amenable to showing them Furious given that this was just after the Anglo-German Naval Agreement had been signed in June 1935 and relations between the two nations was more cordial and knowing that she would be of little help.
That brings us to the next problem that the Germans faced in carrier production. Shipyard capacity. The laying down of GZ had to await the launch of Gneisenau, the ships being built on the same slip. The second ship was delayed in part as the yard had to launch Prinz Eugen before making a start. And delays crept into the programme after that due to various shortages.
Graf Zeppelin aircraft handling arrangements (drawn from "Freedom of the Seas. The Story of Hitler's Aircraft Carrier - Graf Zeppelin" chapter titled "Carrier Operations. Deployment of a Kriegsmarine Carrier - Based on Original Operating Plans for the Graf Zeppelin" and other sources.)
Each cat was powered by compressed air with storage to allow a test shot and 8 operational shots before the air reservoir required refilling. Using alternate cats aircraft could be launched every 30 secs. The real weakness in the system was that once the air was exhausted it took 50 mins to replenish.
50 minute recharge time is hardly hours, and not really an issue when all 39 (maybe 41) aircraft have been launched. The joke is more only 41 planes on more tonnage than Ark Royal or Yorktowns. (And a little on the limited range of said aircraft).