What You Need to Know: The German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin is often cited as one of the worst aircraft carriers in history. Designed by Deutsche Werke, it was launched in 1938 but never saw action. WWII delays and a lack of strategic belief in carriers by German leadership kept it unfinished.

-The Graf Zeppelin had impressive specifications, including a maximum speed of 33.8 knots and a 42-aircraft capacity, yet never completed sea trials or combat missions.

-After being scuttled, it was later raised and sunk by the Soviets. In 2006, its wreck was found off the coast of Poland, marking its final resting place.

What Was the Worst Aircraft Carrier Ever? Meet the Graf Zeppelin 

Having recently opined on what I subjectively consider to be the Five Best Aircraft Carriers of World War II, let’s go ahead and stir the pot a bit in the opposite extreme direction by asking: “What was the worst aircraft carrier ever?”  

You might be inclined to say it’s the present-day Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, and understandably so, as she’s certainly been a major boondoggle and source of never-ending embarrassment for Vladimir Putin and his naval staff. 

However, at least the Kuznetsov did manage to see combat ever so briefly, launching airstrikes against Syrian rebels in late 2016, and reportedly destroying over 1,000 targets in the process. She may have lost two fighter jets along the way, a Sukhoi Su-33 “Flanker-D” and a MiG-29 “Fulcrum”, when they crashed landed due to problems with the carrier’s landing systems, but eh, why nitpick?

So might make a case for the WWII Imperial Japanese Navy’s Shinano, the world’s first supercarrier, and before her conversion to that configuration, sister ship to Yamato and Musashi, the most powerful battleships ever for being rather inauspiciously sunk on her sea trials by the submarine USS Archerfish (SS-331) in November 1944. 

However, I’d chalk that up more to bad luck and timing on the part of Shinano’s crew rather than a reflection on the actual quality of the warship herself.  

But instead, I’m going with a WWII-era aircraft carrier that grossly underachieved in proportion to expectations that might’ve reasonably been expected of her given the industrial reputation of her country of origin: Nazi Germany. Hitler’s Third Reich was a vile and despotic regime without a doubt, but give the devil his due: that country produced some highly innovative weapons systems, from the first operational jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe, to the first rocket-powered fighter: the Me 163 Komet, to the Tiger and King Tiger tanks, to some hellacious battleships and submarines: the infamous Unterseeboote, AKA U-boats.  

Yet for all of the Nazis’ industrial prowess, their lone attempt at a “flattop” flat-out sucked. Say Guten Tag to the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, not to be confused with the airship of the same name).  

Graf Zeppelin Initial History and Specifications 

Built by Deutsche Werke, Kiel Shipyards, the Graf Zeppelin was laid down on December 28, 1936, and launched on December 8, 1938. At first, it seemed that she’d end up as yet another marvel of Teutonic engineering, but then the commencement of WWII hostilities in September 1939 delayed further progress, including her commissioning, more on this in a bit).  

On paper, Graf Zeppelin had the following specifications and vital stats: 

Displacement: 34,088 tons fully laden 

Hull Length: 262.5 meters (861 feet three inches) 

Beam Width: 36.2 meters (118 feet nine inches) 

Draft: 8.5 meters (twenty-seven feet eleven inches) 

Propulsion: four geared turbines with 200,000 shaft horsepower (150,000 kW) 

Range: 8,000 miles (15,000 kilometers; 9,200 miles) at nineteen knots (thirty-five kilometers/h; twenty-two miles/h) 

Maximum Speed: 33.8 knots (62.6 kilometers/h; 38.9 miles/h) 

Crew Complement: 1,720 commissioned officers and enlisted men 

Aircraft Complement: forty-two (thirty fighters and twelve dive bombers) 

Armament: sixteen 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) SK C/28 guns; twelve 10.5 centimeters (4.13 inches) SK C/33 guns; twenty-two 3.7 centimeters (1.45 inches) SK C/30 guns; twenty-eight 2 centimeters (0.78 inch) FlaK 30/38 guns 

Armor Thickness: 100 millimeters (3.9 inches) at the belt; forty-five millimeters (1.8 inches) at the flight deck; sixty millimeters (2.4 inches) on the main deck. 

Operational Performance—Or Lack Thereof 

Well, see, there’s the rub. In the immortal words of William Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing,” or to directly translate that into Deutsch, “Viel Larm um nichts.”  

Going back to what I said about the start of WWII delaying the commissioning…well, that commissioning ended up never happening. Fast-forward from 1939 to 1943, the Graf Zeppelin was still not seaworthy, and the then sixty-seven-year-old Admiral Erich Raeder was pushed aside by der Führer as commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine and replaced by Admiral Karl Dönitz, who did not believe in the strategic importance of aircraft carriers and put the kibosh on any further work on the Graf Zeppelin.  

Where Is She Now? 

At the end of WWII, she was scuttled by the Germans in the river Oder, only to be raised by the Soviets, who in turn sank her for good as a target ship on August 16, 1947. 

On July 12, 2006, her wreck was discovered by the Polish-flagged research vessel RV St. Barbara, lying approximately eighty meters (260 feet) beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea, roughly 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of the Polish city of Władysławowo.   

About the Author 

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). 

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