KMS Graf Zeppelin Technical Information

Type: aircraft carrier
Displacement, standard: 19,250 tons
Displacement, full load: 28,100 tons
Length, overall: 246.96m
Beam: 26.97m
Draught (mean): 5.59m
Flight deck: 240.75 x 26.97m
Complement: 1,760 + air crew
Machinery speed: steam geared turbines 200,000shp (149,260kw) to four shafts
Speed: 32 knots
Class: Graf Zeppelin (1936), Peter Strasser (1936)
Armament: sixteen 5.9-inch (4x2, 8x1), twelve 4.1-inch anti-aircraft, twenty-two 37mm anti-aircraft, twenty-eight 20mm aircraft
Armor: belt: up to 9cm, deck : up to 3.8cm, flight deck: up to 1.9cm, casemates for 5.9-inch guns. Initial design did not include bulges. But when construction was revised in 1942, she was equipped with bulges at Kiel during winter 1942-43. The bulges proved their effectiveness when she received her first torpedo hit during the tests by the Soviets. The bulges were completely destroyed, but the armor belt remained intact. Sides appear to be armored for two-thirds of length amidships, and to a lesser extent as far as bow, which is of bulbous form. Will have island superstructure on starboard side
Aircraft: 40: 18 Ju 87C, 22 sea-version Me 109T
Development: One of the two aircraft carriers was photographed from the air, fitting out alongside a quay in the Naval Dockyard at Kiel, in July 1940, whence she is believed to have proceeded to Gdynia. Peter Strasser does not appear to have been completed.

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