Graf Zeppelin found?

[Arsenal]

Polish Navy seems to think so...

WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Navy said Thursday that it has identified a sunken shipwreck in the Baltic Sea as almost certainly being Nazi Germany's only aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin — a find that promises to shed light on a 59-year-old mystery surrounding the ship's fate.

The Polish oil company Petrobaltic discovered the shipwreck earlier this month on the sea floor about 38 miles north of the northern port city of Gdansk.

Suspecting it could be the wreckage of the Graf Zeppelin, the Polish Navy sent out a hydrographic survey vessel on Tuesday, said Lt. Cmdr. Bartosz Zajda, a spokesman for the Polish Navy.

"We are 99 percent sure — even 99.9 percent — that these details point unambiguously to the Graf Zeppelin," said Dariusz Beczek, the Navy commander of the vessel, the ORP Arctowski, said soon after returning to port Thursday morning after the two-day expedition.

During their time at sea, naval experts used a remote-controlled underwater robot and sonar photographic and video equipment to gather digital images of the 850-foot-long ship, Zajda said.

"The analyses of the sonar pictures and the comparison to historical documents show that it is the Graf Zeppelin," Zajda told The Associated Press.

Zajda said a number of characteristics of the shipwreck exactly matched those of the Graf Zeppelin, including the ship's measurements and a special device that lifted aircraft onto the launch deck from a lower deck.

The naval experts were still waiting to find the name "Graf Zeppelin" on one the ship's sides before declaring with absolute certainty that it is the German carrier, Zajda said.

The Graf Zeppelin was Germany's only aircraft carrier during World War II. It was launched on Dec. 8, 1938, but never saw action. After Germany's defeat in 1945, the Soviet Union took control of the ship, but it was last seen in 1947 and since then the ship's fate has been shrouded in mystery.

Navy researchers plan to continue to examine the material they gathered during their two days at sea, but the analysis of the shipwreck will then fall to historians and other researchers, Zajda said.

The Graf Zeppelin will almost certain remain on the sea bed, he said.

"Technically it's impossible to pull it out of the water," Zajda said

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060727/ap_on_re_eu/poland_graf_zeppelin

More info on the Graf Zeppelin

http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/carrier/grafzeppelin/history.html

Pretty cool. If it is the Graf Zeppelin, I hope they can salvage it. It's probably too far gone though.

[Tonar]

Can we launch german planes from the carriers?

[Arsenal]

Can we launch german planes from the carriers?

I know I have flown German planes off of carriers in a dogfight map. Obviously, there is no tailhook on them.

IIRC, the Germans developed a naval version of the 109 Emil with strenghtened landing gear and a tail hook. I can't imagine flying a 109, with it's narrow undercarriage off of a pitching deck, much less landing there. Seems to me a 190 would be more suited for the task.

[B16Enk]

And getting a 190 off the deck is challenging too, managed it once shortly after PF came out. Don't know if subsequent FM changes hinder or help...but it needed teh entire deck to get up!

[Emann]

Unbeleivable!

Here are the latest SONAR images of the wreck. Pretty dramatic.

[JensenPark]

too freaking cool.

if I had Bill Gate's money - I'd retire and spend my time looking for old WW2 treasure like this...

[Dubbo]

Did you ever see the documentary that James Cameron did where he dove the Bismark. Took some Bismark vets with him too and some Brit Navy vets. Brilliant.

[JensenPark]

didn't see that.

Cameron stayed at my hotel in St John's - filming a similiar thing for the titanic (not the movie though)

believe it or not, his credit card was declined.

[Rattler]

Did you ever see the documentary that James Cameron did where he dove the Bismark. Took some Bismark vets with him too and some Brit Navy vets. Brilliant.

Yes, I saw that. Didn't they place a plaque there honouring the dead, as well?

[Dubbo]

Yeah I think they did. The footage of the wreck was incredible - the big swastika was still visible on the foredeck.

Additionally the computer graphics they did for the battles she took part in (including shell-cam) as well as the actual sinking was brilliant to see. (The same programmers they used for the Titanic computer graphics of the sinking).

But the stories the different sailors told were horrifying and moving. This story needs to be made into a full length 3 hour motion picture while there are still records and eye-witness accounts to be had. Jurgen Pronchow could play Admiral Gunther Lutjens and Ralph Fiennes could play KptzS Ernst Lindemann.

Liam Neeson, Jason Statham, Dexter Fletcher, Stephen Graham, Martin Freeman, Vinnie Jones, Simon Pegg and so-on could play sailors and officers of the the RN, RNVR and RNR. Gordon Ramsey could play an angry cook on board the Rodney or the King George and hell, we could even give Dennis Waterman a role and maybe he could write and sing the theme song. :wink:

[JensenPark]

maybe Ben Aflick could play the captain of the HMS Hood:

"The Bismark is faster, but we can turn quicker"

[Dubbo]

I listed actors. You named a .... a .....celebrity. :roll:

Laurence Olivier would be rolling in his grave.

Good one though.

Actually, most of the cast from "Downfall" could play various crew on the Bismark. A lot of them were very good.