SMS Hessen and/ or Zahringen as aircraft carriers

Would Zahringen and or Hessen have been useful conversions to aircraft carriers .

I'm thinking the equivalent of USS Wolverine and Sable . Purely as training / trials carriers so Germans could gain experience in Naval aviation .

I'm thinking little or no hangar and large overhangs at each end

stationed in some sa fish backwater, maybe the Baltic initially .

something nasty would probably have to happen to Goering pre war to get to this point and they'd probably end up being used to evacuate Germans from clutches of the Red Army if they survived Russian submarines or as aircraft ferry in very desperate circumstances
 
Would Zahringen and or Hessen have been useful conversions to aircraft carriers .

I'm thinking the equivalent of USS Wolverine and Sable . Purely as training / trials carriers so Germans could gain experience in Naval aviation .

I'm thinking little or no hangar and large overhangs at each end

stationed in some sa fish backwater, maybe the Baltic initially .

something nasty would probably have to happen to Goering pre war to get to this point and they'd probably end up being used to evacuate Germans from clutches of the Red Army if they survived Russian submarines or as aircraft ferry in very desperate circumstances

Why use these?
Soviets sold 3 unfinished Borodino-class battlecruisers to germans for scrapping in ~1921, and with the scale of project finishing one of those as a carrier might be better.

What with 2.5x displacement and them being almost twice as long as either Zahringen or Hessen, along with estimated speed being 8 knots more.
 
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Interesting didnt know about these

Why use these?
Soviets sold 3 unfinished Borodino-class battlecruisers to germans for scrapping in the early 20's, and with the scale of project finishing one of those as a carrier might be better.

What with 2.5x displacement and them being almost twice as long as either Zahringen or Hessen, along with estimated speed being 8 knots more.
 
Interesting didnt know about these
Why use these?
Soviets sold 3 unfinished Borodino-class battlecruisers to germans for scrapping in the early 20's, and with the scale of project finishing one of those as a carrier might be better.

What with 2.5x displacement and them being almost twice as long as either Zahringen or Hessen, along with estimated speed being 8 knots more.

Regrettably, I'm pretty sure the NIACC would have quite a bit to say about Germany starting to build a carrier conversion in the early 1920's! Nothing terribly relevant though, just screaming about ToV violations and such...
 

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Banned
Regrettably, I'm pretty sure the NIACC would have quite a bit to say about Germany starting to build a carrier conversion in the early 1920's! Nothing terribly relevant though, just screaming about ToV violations and such...
Yeah, you would need a White Peace to get Germany to build any sort of aircraft carrier in the 20s or early 30s.
 
Would Zahringen and or Hessen have been useful conversions to aircraft carriers .

I'm thinking the equivalent of USS Wolverine and Sable . Purely as training / trials carriers so Germans could gain experience in Naval aviation .

Hessen1946Kiel.jpg

seems they would be useful for something but they are really too slow and antiquated in design while at the same time they were warships so the RN is going to be watching?
 
Regrettably, I'm pretty sure the NIACC would have quite a bit to say about Germany starting to build a carrier conversion in the early 1920's! Nothing terribly relevant though, just screaming about ToV violations and such...

What is needed to qualify a vessel as a warship by Treaty of Versailles? Doesn't it need to be armed at least to some extent?
 
What is needed to qualify a vessel as a warship by Treaty of Versailles? Doesn't it need to be armed at least to some extent?

I doubt you'd get any approval whatever for any innovative designs like an aircraft carrier in 192x. And anything truly innovative will be denied while England then frantically starts building one herself. Plus aircraft are banned by the ToV. Really hard to argue that your flat top ship with a large hanger is not meant to fly them.
 
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seems they would be useful for something but they are really too slow and antiquated in design while at the same time they were warships so the RN is going to be watching?

Even just as a flak ship you d think they'd have done a bit more with them

my comment is always they needed a more coherent Kriegsmarine, that almost any strategic plan or fleet composition would be better than historical mishmash.

not sure about uses for the WWI-era ships, it seems being coal-fired they could have operated with the M-class and planned G-class as escorts? https://german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/misc/kanonenboot1941/index.html
 
Regrettably, I'm pretty sure the NIACC would have quite a bit to say about Germany starting to build a carrier conversion in the early 1920's! Nothing terribly relevant though, just screaming about ToV violations and such...

Configure them as mobile experimental commercial sea plane bases . Mail planes can use a flight deck on top for local delivery. Very innocent, right?
 
Until the Anglo-German Naval agreement , Germany is technically limited to six battleships ( with size limits on new replacements ) , six cruisers, twelve destroyers, and twelve torpedo boats. Much cheating was done but its 1933 when things like u-boats begin to appear and effectively 1937 when Graf Zeppelin's keel is laid. So not scrapping the ships would be a clear breach and starting converting would cause the RN to turn up ( and in the 20's Germany has nothing to stop them )
 
Configure them as mobile experimental commercial sea plane bases . Mail planes can use a flight deck on top for local delivery. Very innocent, right?

At 33,000 tons? You'd get quuuite a bit of side eye from the Allies.

that was my point, no matter the flaws, when they attempt anything with a warship it is going to be closely watched.

they had an entire class of supply/tankers Dithmarschen-class, which could have been used to launch aircraft if not full carrier operations.

still think the best use for old WWI-era ships would be to strip the naval guns, use them as (lightly) armored flak ships/escorts. it would have taken destroyers to deal with them?
 
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