Why did Germany not have any aircraft carriers?

[mpw]

I would suggest a large part of the German navy budget went into the construction of the very effective U Boats which could and did sink very large ships.

Mark.

[Gwar]

I would suggest that Hitlers Luftwaffe was very well equipped and versatile Air Force at the time
and had very many prototypes in the works leading into "Jet Propulsion" IMHO..
The V-2 Rocket technology attests to many Third Reich innovations including the "Big-Guns"
Perhaps, Hitler never envisioned a "World War" By land, sea , and air.. Just my two cents...G

[Aleksander P]

I think aircraft carriers would have been a huqe vaste of assets for Germany, as it didnt go along with Germanys type of warfare. Aircraft carriers are extremely costly and take very long to build.

[Aleksander P]

The primary reasons of having an aircraft carrier is that it can provide a landing strip for planes when there is no land available in long distances and that it's mobile. Europe isn't like the Pacific and Germany could reach it's planes to all locations of military interest at the peak of it's power.

[CampX]

Sometime ago, I say a youtube video of drivers going down to the wreck, shes in bad shape, but it is very interesting.

Dean O

[hucks216]

As well as the cost of building - and employing - a carrier there would of been a need to also build escorts for her such as more destroyers and anti-submarine vessels that were ocean going (a true blue-water Navy) not to mention an effective fleet of supply ships that not only carried stores and fuel for the ships but also fuel and weapons for the aircraft she carried.

[Danmark]

At least in Europe the carriers wouldn't have had the kamikaze to deal with!!!

[Adrian Stevenson]

Have a look at this old forum thread as I added many pics:

Nazi Aircraft Carrier Found

[reneblacky]

bottom line, one or more couldn't be effective, all would have been a serious target!

[Woolgar]

It takes years of labor and Tons of money to build a capitol ship. Germany did not have the luxury of either. They Did begin to construct an aircraft carrier, but it was never finished in time and was ultimately wasted. Hitler, himself, was an old Army man and never had alot of faith in big costly and vulnerable ships. Considering the air forces of England, Russia and the US, he was probably correct in this way of thinking. Not to mention the British Navy's size and power. One has only to look at the ignominious and costly end of the Bismark to see the problem. The Tirpitz, Bismark's sister ship, was never dared to be risked much at all, under the circumstances, and it Still was sunk despite elaborate and desperate measures to protect it. There were several plans to try to convert various large ships into auxiliary carriers, but they were too little and too late for any of them to be completed. Big capitol ships simply took too long to build and cost too much to construct and operate (they used Enormous amounts of precious fuel oil and supplies in general). Basically, Germany could never hope to build enough ships to Ever meet the British Navy on anything like an equal footing. In this, the Versailles Treaty and Germany's forced disarmament after WWI was very effective indeed.

That's how I see it. Hitler knew the Royal Navy and RAF would send any German Aircraft carriers to the bottom of the sea pretty quickly

Nick