NAVYPEDIA

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
Elbe (ex-Potsdam)		497	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg // Blohm & Voss, Kiel	1934	16.1.1935	6.1936 // ---	cancelled 2.2.1943, accommodation ship
Jade (ex-Gneisenau)		893	A G Weser, Bremen // KMW Wilhelmshaven	1934	17.5.1935	1.1936 // ---	cancelled 25.11.1942, personnel transport

Technical data

Displacement standard, t	Elbe: 17527 Jade: 18160
Displacement full, t	Elbe: 23500
Length, m	Elbe: 189.0 wl 203.0 oa Jade: 191.0 wl 203.0 oa
Breadth, m	26.8 wl 27.0 fd
Draught, m	8.85 deep load
No of shafts	2
Machinery	Elbe: 2 electric motors, 2 Blohm & Voss / SSW turbine-generators, 4 Benson boilers Jade: 2 sets Deschimag geared steam turbines, 4 Wagner boilers
Power, h. p.	26000
Max speed, kts	21
Fuel, t	oil 4570
Endurance, nm(kts)	9000(19)
Armour, mm	flight deck: 20, hangar sides: 15 - 10
Armament	6 x 2 - 105/60 SK C/33, 5 x 2 - 37/80 SK C/30, 8 x 4 - 20/65 C/38, 24 aircraft (Bf109T fighters, Ju87C, Fi 167 diving bombers)
Electronic equipment	3x FuMO 21 radars
Complement	883 - 900

Air group

Year	Fighters	diving bombers
1943 (planned)	12 Bf109T	12 Ju87C

Standard scale images

Aircraft facilities

 (fd - 5,022 m², ha - 2,664 m² / 15,078 m³): Flight deck: 186.0 x 27.0 m. Hangar: 148.0 x 18.0 x ? m. Two lifts, each (15.2 x 14.3 m, 6.5 t). There were 2 catapults of K-252 type. Aircraft fuel stowage: 100 t. 

Project history

Decision to convert passenger liners Potsdam and Gneisenau to aircraft carriers was dated from May 1942, works on Potsdam started in December but they were cancelled in February 1943 and ship was used as accommodation. She was taken by Britain in June 1946 and renamed Empire Fowey. Works on Gneisenau never really started, she was reclassified as personnel transport and sunk by mine 2.5.1943 .

Ship protection

Flight deck would had 20mm and hangar sides 15-10mm protection. There was primitive anti-torpedo protection consisted of bulges and thin bulkheads.