Kriegsmarine catapult ships ?

When the Kriegsmarine was anticipating the formation or completion of it's aircraft carriers several merchant vessels were converted to (Sperber) ships to launch and recover seaplanes for scouting purposes....at least two BV 138's were carried per ship.

Anyone have any additional info via books or net ?

vielen Dank !

~E

 

Hi im new here, but thats kinda wierd to have catapult ships, i looked over google and found this:

 

Try this web-page it lists all the German "carriers" that entered service in both wars.
http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/carriers/germany.htm#sper
has a number of photos as well

[ 13. June 2003, 07:00 AM: Message edited by: redcoat ]

 

will do guys ! Josh your pic or post did not compute into my little PC, can U repost or send an addy ?

found one ship called the Westphalen and it shows to of the big BV 138's on board. Odd almost flat looking ship but not quite what you would call a flat-bed carrier. reminds me of one of the wierd present day oil rigs without all the verticla masts/rigging....

~E

 

wish I had scanner beside me. One of the heroic pilots flying the big boyz BV 138 was Oberfledwebel Wilhelm Nickisch who by 6 Januar 1945 had racked up an impressive record of over 1000 missions where he was awarded the Deutsch Kreuz in Gold, 3.Gruppe 126(F)

In the Ostsee from February 27 till May 5, 1945 another 46 missions were flown primarily for evacuations....

by the way the ship Westfalen hit two mines and sunk in September 1944.

there was another ship also that I am aware of and that is the Friesenland and this was hit by a Soviet torpedo from a torpedo-bomber off the North cape on 20 September 1944.

~E