Jade-class aircraft carrier
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators: |
 Kriegsmarine
|
| Planned: | 2 |
| Completed: | 0 |
| Cancelled: | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| 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 Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers and twelve Bf-109 fighters. Work on Jade was not started and the conversion project was abandoned in November 1942. She returned to service as a troopship, only to be sunk by a mine in the western Baltic. Elbe actually began the conversion process in December 1942, but only her passenger fittings were removed by the time work was halted in February 1943. She was converted into a barracks ship in Gotenhafen and seized by Great Britain after the end of the war. She remained in use until 1976, when she was broken up for scrap
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. Work on the purpose-built carrier Graf Zeppelin, which had been halted in April 1940, was resumed in March 1942. 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.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.
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Wikipedia