Did you know Nazi Germany built an aircraft carrier?

I didn’t, let me introduce you to the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin.

Laid down in 1936 and launched in 1938, she was intended to carry around 40 aircraft and project German air power at sea. On paper, she looked formidable — fast, heavily armed, and a clear signal that Germany wanted to join the naval aviation club dominated by Britain, the US, and Japan.

There was just one problem.

She was never completed.

Inter-service rivalry (the Luftwaffe refused to give the navy control of carrier aircraft), shifting wartime priorities, and Germany’s lack of carrier doctrine meant Graf Zeppelin never became operational. Construction was halted, restarted, halted again — and in 1945 she was scuttled before ever launching a combat sortie, later raised from the sea by the Soviet’s who sunk her for target practice.

Germany built the ship.

They just never built the capability.

Darn.