10 Unbelievable New World War II Discoveries

10 Unbelievable New World War II Discoveries

Andrew Omalley - March 30, 2018

10 Unbelievable New World War II Discoveries
Graf Zepellin in Soviet Custody. Wikipedia

9. Graf Zeppelin

There was only a single type of aircraft carrier that had been built by the German navy during the Second World War. This was called the Graf Zeppelin and it was initially launched in 1938, the year before the start of the war. It was in May of 1941 that Hitler had been informed by the Grand Admiral Reader that they had managed to get 85% through the building of the Graf Zeppelin and that it would be fully finished and ready to be used by 1942.

However, then it turned out to not be the case and by 1943 it was still only 95% complete and Hitler lost interest in the project and eventually, it became abandoned due to his lack of interest. After the end of the Second World War ended in 1945, this aircraft carrier on the 25th of April was scuttled in Stettin, Poland in the shallow waters. This was done to ensure that the Russians could not get their hands on this aircraft carrier and learn details about German engineering.

Despite these efforts, it was in March 1946 that the Russians successfully managed to reflate the aircraft carrier and it was brought by a tow from Poland over to Leningrad where they aimed to conduct repairs on the carrier. However, as time went by nothing was done by the Russians to try and repair the carrier so eventually, it was brought back to the coast of Poland. It was in 1947 that the Russians started to use the Graf Zeppelin for their target practice of their aircrafts and ships. Despite having directly hit it with 24 bombs and other projectiles, the carrier was still floating. In the end, it took a copula of torpedoes to finally sink her.

For decades it was unsure as to what the exact location the carrier was sunk at, until 2006 when the Petro Baltic managed to discover the wreckage. This is a ship that is owned by the Polish Oil Company and the wreck was discovered near to the Eba port. This grave was confirmed later that year by a Polish survey ship and it was officially identified as being the Graf Zeppelin and she was lying about 264ft under the surface of the water.

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