Wednesday, April 15, 2015 - 12:14 AM UTC
Vintage Wings of Canada has published “Fascist Flattops,” an account of the abortive lives of the Axis aircraft carriers Graf Zeppelin, Weser, Aquila, and Sparviero in World War Two.
“Somewhere 55 kilometres off the coast of Poland, beneath the dark, cold waters of the Baltic Sea, lies the colossal ghost of a haughty dream of world dominance. While fish sluggishly fin in and out of her silent spaces, silt settles like the dust of history over her rusting shoulders. It has been nearly seventy years since she last saw the light of day. And what an awful day that was.
She is Flugzeugträger (Aircraft Carrier) Graf Zeppelin, one of five aircraft carriers commenced by the navies of the two European fascist powers of the Second World War—Germany and Italy. Of the five attempted carriers, Graf Zeppelin came the closest to being operational. In the end, her only military accomplishment was a benefit to the Allies—keeping 30,000 tons of much needed steel from the U-boat builders of the Third Reich...”

So begins Fascist Flattops, a “Vintage News Story” posted on Vintage Wings of Canada. The article presents a fascinating account of the careers of these four ill-fated ships, with clear and informative text as well as numerous photographs. (Notable pics include a couple which prove that the dramatic bulges on the sides of Revell’s 1/720 scale Graf Zeppelin are actually correct, and pics of a Stuka with folding wings!) The article tells the little known stories of these great ships and is an invaluable resource for the modeler contemplating a build of any of these fascist flattops.

Vintage Wings of Canada, a web site dedicated to preserving and continuing the heritage of Canadian aviation, presents this and many other articles completely free of charge “to honor our heroes of yesterday and today.” What a deal!

“Fascist Flattops” on Vintage Wings of Canada may be accessed at:
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/460/Fascist-Flattops.aspx
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Comments

Whoa! Very, very cool! I had no idea there was any other axis carriers planned other than the Graf Zeppelin. Should we tell Aeroscale about this site?, Naw, the wing-dings'll figure it out for themselves
APR 15, 2015 - 02:54 AM
Interesting.
APR 17, 2015 - 05:55 AM
a fabulous find and something that most people wont know about, thank you for sharing it with us
JUN 12, 2015 - 03:23 PM
THIS STORY HAS BEEN READ 4,226 TIMES.
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