Jade-class aircraft carrier
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators |  Kriegsmarine |
| Succeeded by | German aircraft carrier II |
| Planned | 2 |
| Completed | 0 |
| Cancelled | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Aircraft carrier |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 203 m (666 ft 0 in) overall |
| Beam | Hull: 22.6 m (74 ft 2 in) Flight Deck: 27 m (88 ft 7 in) |
| Draft | Full load: 8.85 m (29.0 ft) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Range | 9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | 24 aircraft |
| Aviation facilities | 2 catapults |
The Jade class comprised a pair of passenger ships intended to be converted into auxiliary aircraft carriers by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The two ships were launched as Gneisenau and Potsdam in 1935 and operated in peacetime by Norddeutscher Lloyd. After the outbreak of war, the ships were requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine as transports, and in May 1942, plans were drawn up to convert them into aircraft carriers. The ships were not identical, but were similar enough in size to allow identical outfitting.
Gneisenau and Potsdam were to be renamed Jade and Elbe, respectively. Once converted, the ships were intended to operate twelve
Conversion
Following the loss of the battleship Bismarck in May 1941, during which British aircraft carriers proved instrumental, and the near torpedoing of her sister ship Tirpitz by carrier-launched aircraft in March 1942, the Kriegsmarine became convinced of the necessity of acquiring aircraft carriers.[1] Work on the purpose-built carrier Graf Zeppelin, which had been halted in April 1940, was resumed in March 1942.[2] The Kriegsmarine also decided to convert a number of vessels into auxiliary aircraft carriers. Several passenger ships, including Gneisenau, Potsdam, and Europa were selected for conversion, along with the incomplete heavy cruiser Seydlitz.[1] Gneisenau and Potsdam had been built in the mid-1930s and operated by Norddeutscher Lloyd on its East Asia Service until the outbreak of war, when they were requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine as troopships.[3]
The ships were found to have insufficient stability when converted into aircraft carriers. This was to have been remedied by the addition of side bulges and fixed ballast. The ballast was to have consisted of "concrete armor," a layer of concrete fitted to the sides of the hulls below the waterline. Conversion work on Gneisenau, which was to be renamed Jade, never began. The project was abandoned on 25 November 1942. The design for Potsdam, which was assigned the name Elbe, was reworked to correct the stability problems. The bulges and concrete armor were discarded and a second outer skin was substituted. Work began on the ship in December 1942; only the ship's passenger fittings were removed by the time work was halted on 2 February 1943.[3] This was due to the resignation of Admiral Erich Raeder, the commander in chief of the Kriegsmarine, the previous month.[1] Raeder had resigned in protest of Adolf Hitler's order that all surface ships be decommissioned and scrapped in the aftermath of the Battle of the Barents Sea.[4]
Gneisenau was returned to troopship duties after the project was abandoned, but at 12:02 on 2 May 1943, she was sunk by a
A third ocean liner of the same class, Scharnhorst, was purchased by the Imperial Japanese Navy and converted into the escort carrier Shin'yō. Shin'yō was torpedoed and sunk in the East China Sea by a United States Navy submarine.[5]
Characteristics
Jade was 191 meters (627 ft)
Jade was powered by a pair of
As converted, the ships were to be armed with several anti-aircraft guns. The heavy anti-aircraft battery consisted of eight 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK C/33 guns in twin mountings.[3] The mounts were the Dopp LC/31 type, originally designed for earlier 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK C/31 guns. The LC/31 mounting was triaxially stabilized and capable of elevating to 80°. This enabled the guns to engage targets up to a ceiling of 12,500 m (41,000 ft). Against surface targets, the guns had a maximum range of 17,700 m (58,100 ft). The guns fired fixed ammunition weighing 15.1 kg (33 lb); the guns could fire HE and HE incendiary rounds, as well as illumination shells.[6] The two guns were supplied with a total of 3,200 rounds of ammunition.[3]
Close-range anti-aircraft weaponry consisted of twelve
Aircraft facilities were to have consisted of a 186 m (610 ft) long, 27 m (89 ft) wide flight deck. Aircraft were handled in a single hangar, which was 148 m (486 ft) long and 18 m (59 ft) wide. The hangar roof was protected by 20 mm (0.79 in) of
Footnotes
Notes
- Wōden, were two types of steel armor developed by Krupp for the German navy. "Wotan hart" had a breaking strength of 85–96 mm2 and expanded up to 20 percent.[9]
Citations
References
- Caldwell, Donald & Muller, Richard (2007). The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich. London: MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-85367-712-0.
- Campbell, John (1985). Naval Weapons of World War II. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-87021-459-4.
- Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-913-8.
- Garzke, William H. & Dulin, Robert O. (1985). Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-101-0.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Kay, Antony K. & Couper, Paul (2004). Junkers Aircraft and Engines, 1913–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85177-985-9.
- Schenk, Peter (2008). "German Aircraft Carrier Developments". Warship International. 45 (2). Toledo: International Naval Research Organization: 129–158. OCLC 1647131.
- Stille, Mark (2006). Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers: 1921–1945. Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 1-84176-853-7.