The Kriegsmarine Gets Wings

Lost Freeway

Banned
Prologue

December 29, 1944

The Atlantic Ocean, 150 miles southeast of New York City

Konteradmiral Erich Bey watched the Ju-87s and Bf-109s come up from the hangar. The deck of the Peter Strasser was alive with sailors and aircrew. Everybody knew the future of the Reich hung on this operation. This was the last chance to destroy the Western Allies' will to fight before they overwhelmed Germany. The crew of the Strasser had braved impossible odds just to get within striking distance of the American East Coast.

One by one, the planes lifted off from the deck of the carrier, heading towards New York City. The Stukas carried a special payload, one Bey hoped would shock the United States enough that it would lose its stomach for the war. The pilots knew their chances of successfully carrying out their strike-let alone coming back-were 100 billion to one, but it was a small price to pay for the preservation of the Reich.

As soon as the last Stuka disappeared over the horizon, the Strasser's air search radar picked up a large strike moving in from the north.

The Peter Strasser's time had run out.
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Napoleon IV

There are a couple of problems with this:

1. By 1944 the Nazis had very little fuel and their air force was basically destroyed. There is no way an aircraft carrier is getting out of port (especially since IIRC they had all been sunk by that point).

2. The only way to knock the Allies out of the war by 1944 is an atomic bomb. But Germany won't be ale to develop a bomb since they had driven many of the best scientists out, they miscalculated the critical mass needed for a bomb, and there was so much bureaucratic waste because it was divided between 8 or so agencies.
 

joeferrito

How did this carrier get that close to the US coast? It would have been spotted leaving Germany or at least in the North Sea. It would have been annihilated before it got halfway across.
 
Cymraeg

Cymraeg

Peter Strasser gets finished??? Ok, that's a bit of a stretch. Surely it would be better to finish off Graf Zeppelin? As to it getting to New York by 1944... Massively unlikely.

Apologies, German aircraft carrier threads tend to have... problems. :eek:
 

Napoleon IV

Tom Colton said:
This sounds like an even ballsier-to-the-wallsier version of How Silent Fall the Cherry Blossoms.
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I have an easier time believing that a submarine could make it to America and release a biological agent that was developed IOTL than an aircraft carrier making it to America and releasing a weapon that the Germans never got out of the planning stages of development IOTL.
 

Lost Freeway

Banned
Napoleon IV said:
There are a couple of problems with this:

1. By 1944 the Nazis had very little fuel and their air force was basically destroyed. There is no way an aircraft carrier is getting out of port (especially since IIRC they had all been sunk by that point).
Click to expand...

The Peter Strasser was given just enough fuel for a one-way trip to the Eastern Seaboard. As for how it manages to avoid being sunk up to this point, you'll find out later in the story.

2. The only way to knock the Allies out of the war by 1944 is an atomic bomb. But Germany won't be ale to develop a bomb since they had driven many of the best scientists out, they miscalculated the critical mass needed for a bomb, and there was so much bureaucratic waste because it was divided between 8 or so agencies.
Click to expand...
The Stuka's aren't carrying nukes. It's something the Germans developed IOTL but never had the guts to use. That's all I'm gonna say on the matter so don't spoil it! And yes, this operation will fail like all Axis late-war gambles.
 

I want to learn

I assume this timeline is essentially about the Nazis dropping nerve gas on New York. That means the initiation chemical and possibly biological warfare. The war will get that much uglier, and this mission is essentially a suicide mission, which itself implies a more fanatic Nazi resistance.
 

Lost Freeway

Banned
I want to learn said:
I assume this timeline is essentially about the Nazis dropping nerve gas on New York. That means the initiation chemical and possibly biological warfare. The war will get that much uglier, and this mission is essentially a suicide mission, which itself implies a more fanatic Nazi resistance.
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Dammit you spoiled it!:mad:
 

nbcman

Donor
Look at how much effort was spent to sink the Tirpitz in 1944. The WAllies would have bombing missions to sink the Peter Strasser along with their attempts to bomb sub pens in Germany. Plus you can't hide a fleet carrier in a protected lock like you could with submarines.

EDIT: And a carrier pen would be impossible to hide-and large enough that even inaccurate bombing may hit it.
 
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Napoleon IV

They would never have used gas. Hitler hated gas, and even when it was suggested to him towards the end of the war he refused.
 

I want to learn

nbcman said:
Look at how much effort was spent to sink the Tirpitz in 1944. The WAllies would have bombing missions to sink the Peter Strasser along with their attempts to bomb sub pens in Germany. Plus you can't hide a fleet carrier in a protected lock like you could with submarines.
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The Tirpitz wasn't sunk until well into 1944, even IOTL. In an alternate timeline, a German carrier conducting a one-way mission in 1944 is pretty plausible. I'd be more concerned about the Peter Strasser being intercepted at sea. The Bismarck wasn't able to break out quietly in 1941, and the Allies should have oodles more operational fast battleships and carriers, with better radar to boot.
 

nbcman

Donor
I want to learn said:
The Tirpitz wasn't sunk until well into 1944, even IOTL. In an alternate timeline, a German carrier conducting a one-way mission in 1944 is pretty plausible. I'd be more concerned about the Peter Strasser being intercepted at sea. The Bismarck wasn't able to break out quietly in 1941, and the Allies should have oodles more operational fast battleships and carriers, with better radar to boot.
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Tirpitz was damaged extensively in 1943. When the British discovered repairs were almost done, the attacks resumed in April 1944. But if there was another target like Peter Strasser, the Allies would have attacked her in port if they could reach her.

Astrodragon said:
It's obvious how the Germans got so close to New York, it is in fact a submersible aircraft carrier...:p
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If the Germans actually built her, she would have been a submersed aircraft carrier as quickly as possible.
 

General Mosh

The OPs written less than 200 words thus far and you guys are already trying to drag the timeline to a rather ignominious execution. Chill out, throw the timeline in your subscriptions, and hang on for a couple updates. Maybe the OP will allay some of your concerns. Maybe they'll dig themselves a hole. Either way, it's difficult to draw the conclusion that something is ASB from a short prologue segment (well written, I may add) which does nothing but set the tone.

To the OP, keep it up. I'm interested, for sure.
 

Lost Freeway

Banned
Chapter One

The mid-late 1930s

Nazi Germany.

The Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers had their roots in the Anglo-German naval treaty of 1935. The Kriegsmarine was limited to 35% of the tonnage of the Royal Navy. The Germans hoped that the treaty would be the beginning of an alliance between the United Kingdom and Germany, while the British hoped the treaty would act as a check on German rearmament. In the end, both sides proved to be wrong, and German rearmament continued.

The treaty allowed Germany to build aircraft carriers with displacement up to 38,500 tons. Shortly afterwards, plans for such vessels began.

The lead ship of the Graf Zeppelin class was laid down on December 28, 1936. Her sister ship, the Peter Strasser, was laid down on February 15, 1937. The original design included 8 5.9-inch guns, but these were deleted from the final design as the designers felt they were superfluous. [POD]

The Graf Zeppelin was officially commissioned on January 1, 1940. Her airgroup consisted of 10 Messerschmitt Bf-109T fighters, 20 Fieseler Fi-167 torpedo bombers, and 13 Junkers Ju-87C dive bombers. The Peter Strasser would follow on February 29.

In the meantime, World War 2 begins as OTL...

Up next, the first naval battles of WWII.



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Saphroneth

Banned
General Mosh said:
The OPs written less than 200 words thus far and you guys are already trying to drag the timeline to a rather ignominious execution. Chill out, throw the timeline in your subscriptions, and hang on for a couple updates. Maybe the OP will allay some of your concerns. Maybe they'll dig themselves a hole. Either way, it's difficult to draw the conclusion that something is ASB from a short prologue segment (well written, I may add) which does nothing but set the tone.

To the OP, keep it up. I'm interested, for sure.
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It's because there's been many threads on the Kriegsmarine having aircraft carriers before, and they've basically all been terrible wanks.

My current mode on the TL is cautiously optimistic that they've taken four years to make the carrier, wary about whether the sheer effort involved in making a working carrier is understood (i.e. years of lead time or you'll be making a lot of mistakes very often) and baffled how a large ship could make it that far into the Atlantic in an era of Air-to-Surface-Vessel Radar. (ASV).
 
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