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The ''Jade'' class comprised a pair of passenger ships intended to be converted into auxiliary aircraft carriers by Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' during World War II. The two ships were launched as ''Gneisenau'' and ''Potsdam'' in 1935 and operated in peace time by Norddeutscher Lloyd. After the outbreak of war, the ships were requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine as transports, and in May 1942, plans were drawn up to convert them into aircraft carriers. The ships were not identical, but were similar enough in size to allow identical outfitting. ''Gneisenau'' and ''Potsdam'' were to be renamed ''Jade'' and ''Elbe'', respectively. Once converted, the ships were intended to operate twelve Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers and twelve Bf-109 fighters. Work on ''Jade'' was not started and the conversion project was abandoned in November 1942. She returned to service as a troopship, only to be sunk by a mine in the western Baltic. ''Elbe'' actually began the conversion process in December 1942, but only her passenger fittings were removed by the time work was halted in February 1943. She was converted into a barracks ship in Gotenhafen and seized by Great Britain after the end of the war. She remained in use until 1976, when she was broken up for scrap ==Conversion== Following the loss of the battleship ''Bismarck'' in May 1941, during which British aircraft carriers proved instrumental, and the near torpedoing of her sistership ''Tirpitz'' by carrier-launched aircraft in March 1942, the Kriegsmarine became convinced of the necessity of acquiring aircraft carriers.〔Garzke & Dulin, p. 296〕 Work on the purpose-built carrier ''Graf Zeppelin'', which had been halted in April 1940, was resumed in March 1942.〔Gröner, p. 72〕 The Kriegsmarine also decided to convert a number of vessels into auxiliary aircraft carriers. Several passenger ships, including ''Gneisenau'', ''Potsdam'', and ''Europa'' were selected for conversion, along with the incomplete heavy cruiser ''Seydlitz''.〔 ''Gneisenau'' and ''Potsdam'' had been built in the mid-1930s and operated by Norddeutscher Lloyd on its East Asia Service until the outbreak of war, when they were requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine as troopships.〔 The ships were found to have insufficient stability when converted into aircraft carriers. This was to have been remedied by the addition of side bulges and fixed ballast. The ballast was to have consisted of "concrete armor," a layer of concrete fitted to the sides of the hulls below the waterline. Conversion work on ''Gneisenau'', which was to be renamed ''Jade'', never began. The project was abandoned on 25 November 1942. The design for ''Potsdam'', which was assigned the name ''Elbe'', was reworked to correct the stability problems. The bulges and concrete armor were discarded and a second outer skin was substituted. Work began on the ship in December 1942; only the ship's passenger fittings were removed by the time work was halted on 2 February 1943.〔 This was due to the resignation of Admiral Erich Raeder, the commander in chief of the Kriegsmarine, the previous month.〔 Raeder had resigned in protest of Adolf Hitler's order that all surface ships be decommissioned and scrapped in the aftermath of the Battle of the Barents Sea.〔Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 221〕 ''Gneisenau'' was returned to troopship duties after the project was abandoned, but at 12:02 on 2 May 1943, she was sunk by a mine off Gedser. ''Potsdam'' was converted into a barracks ship in Gotenhafen, where she spent the remainder of the war. Following the German defeat, the ship was seized by the British on 20 June 1946 as a war prize, who commissioned her as a troop transport under the name ''Empire Fowey''. She was sold to Pakistan, who operated her under the name ''Safina-E-Hujjaj'' until she was broken up for scrap in 1976.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jade-class aircraft carrier」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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