Luftwaffe Corsair "Yellow 2", Carrier Graf Zeppelin, December 1943

[nönöbär]

Luftwaffe Chance Vought F4U

Introduction:

The aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was Germanys only aircraft carrier in WW2 - and it was not completed. Laid down in 1938, the construction of the incomplete ship was stopped in 1940. In 1942, construction was continued with a planned operational date of winter 1943. However, in December 1942, the consturction was stopped again, at this point the ship was completed about 80%. The incomplete ship was taken over by the Russians at the end of the war and sunk during weapons tests in 1947. Some years ago, the wreck was found in the Baltic Sea.


Alternate History:
Lets assume that the construction of Graf Zeppelin was not stopped in 1940. Instead, the carrier was put into service in late 1942 with its original planned aircraft, the Me 109T as a fighter, the Ju87 as dive bomber and the Fi167 as torpedo bomber.

The Plane:

In 1943, the German Auxiliary Cruiser Michel (HSK-9) was operating in the Pacific. It was one of the last active German merchant raiders. In Feb 1943, the Michel surprised the American transport ship "Iron Can" which had to stop because of an engine failure. Approaching without being detected as a warship, the Michel was able to send a boarding crew on board of the "Iron Can" which could prevent a scuttling of the American ship. The cargo of the "Iron Can" consited of 16 Chance Vought F4U, packed in boxes under and on the deck. The commander of the Michel, KzS von Ruckteschell, decided to send the "Iron Can" to Germany with a German crew on board after the engine failure was repaired. It took three monthes until the ship arrived in France and the Corsiars were transported to the Luftwaffe-Erprobungsstelle in Rechlin.

As the Me 109T were a very difficult aircraft to be used on the Graf Zeppelin, it was decided to replace them with eight of the Corsair fighters. On Oct 22, the aircraft arrived on the ship which was directly send to Norway. The Corsairs formed the so called "Delphin-Staffel". There, the Graf Zeppelin operated together with Scharnhorst and Tirpitz. The Corsairs were very successful in providing air cover for the battelships during their few operations. In  May 1944, all three ships were returned to the Baltic Sea where they operated until the end of the war in 1945.







The Model:
As I want to build all the aircraft to be used on the Graf Zeppelin, I still struggle a big with the camo pattern. Therefore I wanted to try the different alternatives on test models first. So I took the old and simple Frog Corsair to use the first camo scheme - two different grays fo the upper cammo, the lower part of the fuselage and wings in light gray. The model itself was quite simple and consits of only few pars, but for a test model, its ok. No additional parts were used. The model shows the "Yellow 2", flown by Leutnant Müller during the Operation "Ostfront" in December 1943.

[Tophe]

Unusual and well done!

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Great idea and a neat model.

[NARSES2]

Very nice

[Hotte]

Great story!
Beautiful Corsair!

Hotte

[dumaniac]

yes - looks super

[bearmatt]

Great!

Like the "Killerwal" on the cowling