Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier

[o.r.k.]

I´ve found an interesting article about the fate of the recently discovered wreck of the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin in the Baltic Sea (by Polish oil workers). I knew about it but not these details of how it was used and disbanded by the Germans and that the Russians then lifted it and used it as a test carrier to find out how to sink carriers by air attacks in the Cold War. If your German is reasonable here´s the link:

http://einestages.spiegel.de/s/tb/29...perschiff.html

[reichenberg]

I have always wondered if the story about her being stuffed with looted Nazi treasure is true. If so the contents of the wreck will now be worth a fortune.

[o.r.k.]

I suppose rather not as the German navy didn´t really know what to do with it after a glorious launch- strategically it was a sitting duck bound to be sunk so it was used to be cannibalized for other ships and coastal fortifictions in Norway- certainly not the right place to stuff treasures into it- and how do you hide a carrier in 1945? I believe the Poles did check this possibility anyway when they found it- and I haven´t heard of a young retired Polish oilworker who went on a spectacular shopping spree

[Simon O.]

Here's one of the two surviving twin 15cm turrets from the ship, this one at Oscarborg fortress outside Oslo (the fort that sunk the heavy cruiser Blucher), the other is at the Tirpitz museum outside Alta in North Norway. The reason they survived is because they were used post-war by the Norwegian coastal artillery.

[Ron P]

Great thread. I wish I could read German. Are there plans to explore the wreck?

[o.r.k.]

I believe there isn´t anything big planned- as the Russians filled it with explosives and blasted it away in an aerial exercise and before being cannibalized by the German army) there doesn´t seem to be much to gain from lifting it. As the story of the Zeppelin is one of failed planning and there were no spectacular events, it seems even less likely that someone would invest in such an endeavour.