Graff Spee

[RedRed]

Plans to raise her!

http://news.com.au/common/story_page...55E401,00.html

Regards
RedRed

[az]

Yes, but the Name's Graf Spee (~Count Spee)

AZ

[mdhome]

Does anyone know why the Graf Spee is being floated.


Regards Michael

[RedRed]

wel spotted, Az!

MD - cos she is beautiful and famous?
cos she is in relatively shallow water and therfore easier to lift?
could it be that she wasnt that badly damages when she was scuttled?

I dont know - she wasnt that sucessfull, as a warship....

RedRed

[KvHagedorn]

Probably the prettiest warship ever was the Prinz Eugen, a WW2 German cruiser. The US used her for target practice after the war and sunk her with a nuke.

[UtwigMU]

WRT to success of Spee and other German naval vessels.






Problem was that after WW1 Germany was left without hardly any fleet and wasn't allowed to build warships untill '30's.

Although they started building warships and that they were more modern than older Brittish ships, Brittain's navy was too big. Besides that they also did a massive rearmament in other branches and their main emphasis was on ground forces, so navy was left behind. Also the focus of navy was on submarines and even there they lacked in number - Dönitz demanded 300, he got 50.

Another problem was the focus of navy shifted from battleship to carrier as main vessel and although Germany was building one (Europa) and even modified planes for carier landing, they never finished her.

So any ship that deared to sail outside of baltic found herself hopelessly outmached - like Bismarck. Also while Bismarck was a match for other battleships, it was a plane torpedo attack that damaged her and she could not escape pursuers.

It wasn't so much for poor ships or inferior crews (on the contrary, German ships were latter than brittish and crews fought bravely), as for Brittish navy hopelessly outnumbering Germans, that caused demise of individual ships that deared to sail in Atlantic.

In 1943 they abandoned all ship production in favour of tanks and planes.

A few submarines still exist though - there's one in Deutch Musem in Munich - highly recommend the place if you go to Germany.


Linkie with images of ships:

http://www.kbismarck.com/gwarships.html

The Graff Zeppelin (unfinished German carrier) also ended as target practice (for Russians).

[mdhome]

http://www.kbismarck.com/gwarships.html

I have just had a look at the images. They certainly produced some handsome warships.

Regards MD