"Mysteries of the Baltic Wrecks" - Episode 8 "Graf Zeppelin" - premiere

Tonight, at 10.40 pm, the Canal+ Discovery channel will broadcast the premiere of the eighth episode of a new documentary series “Tajemnice Wraków Bałtyku” (“Mysteries of the Baltic Wrecks”). The creators of the series will take us to the depths of the Baltic Sea, to the wreck of another very unusual vessel. Today’s episode will tell the story of the only aircraft carrier of the Third Reich – the “Graf Zeppelin”.

During World War II, the German Kriegsmarine had only one aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin. Launched in 1938, she was never really completed (only 90% completed by 1943). Moreover, despite its presence among other Second Reich naval vessels, the Graf Zeppelin was never engaged in a naval battle!

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Towed to Szczecin, she was seized by the Soviets on 25 April 1945. On 17 August 1947 she sank during the tow, most probably as a target ship. The Soviets wanted to find out how resistant the German ship was to being hit by various shells. Another version says that the “Graf Zeppelin” was sunk under pressure from the allied forces, who did not want the Soviet Union to have an aircraft carrier in its arsenal.

[blockquote style=”2″]”In the eighth episode of “Mysteries of Baltic Wrecks” Tomek Stachura’s team dives to see the wreck of the only aircraft carrier of the Third Reich from the period of World War II. Never completely built, it was sent back to Leningrad in 1947 after the war. It sank on 17 August during a tow in the Baltic Sea, and the cause of the sinking remains a mystery to this day. One hypothesis is that the Soviet army tested the ship’s resistance to hits. But could the Graf Zeppelin have been sunk under pressure from the allied armies on the Soviet navy, who did not want to allow the USSR to have an aircraft carrier in its possession? And it was a powerful aircraft carrier – only the third torpedo from the destroyer Slavnyy sealed its fate. We will look for answers to these and other questions in the pages of history and – together with a team of divers – under the waters of the Baltic Sea.”[/blockquote]

The series premieres on the Canal+ Discovery channel and via the nc+go app.

Source: canalplus.pl