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Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken. Random House, 2010.

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2.When Louis was twelve, he saw the Graf Zeppelin for the first time. The airship was in the middle of completing a journey around the world. Louise was awestruck because it was the largest flying machine ever crafted.

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From the first days of his ascension to power, Adolf Hitler planned to rebuild the Kriegsmarine into a world-class navy. Most of the world's other major fleets included aircraft carriers, and so German naval authorities soon determined that the Reich would also require carriers.

Germany laid down its first carrier in December 1936, and launched the Graf Zeppelin two years later. It would never enter service, however: disputes between the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe would delay the development of an air group, skepticism about the value of carriers would slow the project and, finally, the demands of the war prioritized other projects.

Had Graf Zeppelin entered service, however, it might have posed a formidable problem for the Royal Navy. Acting either alone or in support of Kriegsmarine battleships, Graf Zeppelin could have threatened Britain's commercial lifeline, and at the very least made the antisubmarine campaign considerably more complicated.
Concept
The Royal Navy began converting ships into aircraft carriers before the end of World War I. By the early 1920s, Japan and the United States had joined the pack. The Washington Naval Treaty accelerated the pace of carrier construction, leading to the conversion of several large battle cruiser hulls into fleet carriers. France joined the party shortly thereafter, and even the Soviets and the Italians made abortive moves towards carrier construction.

The Treaty of Versailles sharply limited both German aviation and German naval construction, making aircraft carriers out of the question. When Hitler renounced those restrictions, however, carriers were back on the menu. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement allotted roughly forty thousand tons to German carrier construction, and initially the Reich determined to construct two nineteen-thousand-ton ships (roughly the size of American, Japanese and British fleet carriers). Although access to foreign aircraft carriers was limited, the Germans did manage to acquire some engineering materials from Japan during the design process.
The Ships
Expectations for the size of Graf Zeppelin and its sister increased across the process, as it became clear that the Anglo-German Naval Agreement did not pose a particularly important obstacle to what the Germans wanted. By the time of its launching, Graf Zeppelin was expected to displace thirty-five thousand tons, very large for an aircraft of the era, similar in size to the Essex-class carriers. Graf Zeppelin had a design speed of thirty-five knots, which would have made it the fastest carrier ever built (although it's not at all clear that the final ship could have made that speed). It would also have carried a substantial antiaircraft armament for the period, which it would have needed given the lack of escorts in any plausible mission profile. Unlike American or Japanese carriers of the period, it would have had an armored flight deck.

Despite its size, the Germans did not expect Graf Zeppelin to carry a very large air group. Work on pilot training and aircraft development started in 1938. The responsibility for this development lay with the Luftwaffe, an interservice collaboration arrangement that has repeatedly proved unworkable in practice. In any case, the initial projected air group included twenty Fi 167 biplane torpedo bombers, ten Bf 109 fighters and thirteen Stuka dive bombers. As the project matured, the Germans dispensed with the Fi 167, and began working on plans to convert the Ju-87 into a torpedo bomber, as well as a carrier specialized fighter. Still, this collection would have been substantially inferior to the air groups normally deployed on American or Japanese carriers.
Employment
Long-range plans for Graf Zeppelin would have involved service with the regular body of the Kriegsmarine, supporting and protecting German battleships in operations against the Royal Navy and other foes. In the real war, however, Graf Zeppelin 's role would have been very different. Just as the cruisers and battleships of the Kriegsmarine found themselves committed to commerce raiding, Graf Zeppelin would have had to earn its keep in the hunt for merchant shipping in the Atlantic.

As an individual raider, Graf Zeppelin would have had some advantages over battleships such as Bismarck and Scharnhorst. Aerial recon would have made it much easier for the Graf Zeppelin to find targets, or to find targets for its partners. Strikes launched by bomber and torpedo aircraft could have wreaked havoc at long range, against not only British merchant shipping, but also against escorts and would-be interception squadrons. And Graf Zeppelin 's fighter contingent could have dealt with Swordfish biplanes of the sort that crippled Bismarck. It could also have operated in tandem with a battleship or heavy cruiser, increasing the scouting range and lethality of the raider formation, while also providing protection against British aircraft.

The biggest problems would have come not from the ship's fuel, but rather from the expenditure of limited aviation stores. Sustaining carrier operations is hugely costly in terms of fuel, munitions and spare parts. The British, Americans and Japanese all dealt with this problem in different ways, and to different effect, but none of them employed carriers in long-range raiding ops detached from sources of supply. Germany did maintain a certain rump network of resupply ships in the Atlantic, but this would have struggled to keep Graf Zeppelin in operation for any extended period of time.

At the onset of war the Germans decided, probably correctly, that the Graf Zeppelins represented too much of an investment, given other priorities. The second ship of the class was broken up before launching, and work on Graf Zeppelin continued spasmodically across the war. Eventually, Allied naval dominance made the construction of further surface vessels pointless. Graf Zeppelin was scuttled in 1945, raised by the Soviets, and sunk as a target in 1947.

In the end, the need to develop operational experience with carriers may have posed the most difficult obstacle. In the wake of World War I, Japan, the UK and the United States spent almost two decades working through the problems and implications of carrier warfare. This included the development of aircraft, deck procedures, pilot training programs, resupply priorities, and aircraft management systems. The Germans would have had very little time to work on any of these, and could not have drawn on the expertise of any partners, apart from the distant Japanese. Simply getting Graf Zeppelin 's air group into shape would have taken more time than the Reich had to lose.

Still, Graf Zeppelin could have thrown a wrench into Allied naval warfighting plans; in the Arctic, for example, it could have caused major problems for Murmansk convoys. It is fortunate that the Nazis never had the opportunity to put it to use.

Robert Farley , a frequent contributor to TNI, is author of The Battleship Book . He serves as a Senior Lecturer at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. His work includes military doctrine, national security, and maritime affairs. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money and Information Dissemination and The Diplomat .

: The German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin . Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Navy

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Graf Zeppelin: Nazi Germany's Forgotten Aircraft Carrier

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From the first days of his ascension to power, Adolf Hitler planned to rebuild the Kriegsmarine into a world-class navy. Most of the world's other major fleets included aircraft carriers, and so German naval authorities soon determined that the Reich would also require carriers.

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3. Louie finishes 2nd at the 1936 Olympics

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3. Louie finishes 2nd at the 1936 Olympics

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4. He thought that he finished first and beat Lash, but then the judges said that Lash beat him. He made the Olympic team.
"Louie Zamperini was on his way to Germany to compete in the Olympics in an event that he had only contested four times. He was the youngest distance runner to ever make the team." (p.27)

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After his race, he wanted a picture of Hitler and then he wanted to talk with him.
"Hitler bent from his box, smiled, and offered his hand. Louie, standing below, had to reach far up. their fingers barely touched. Hitler said something in German. An interpreter translated. "Ah, you're the boy who with the fast finish."(p.35)

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He ran the mile and set a record that would last for 15 years.
"Louie had run the mile in 4:18.3. It was the fastest NCAA mile in history and the fifth-fastest outdoor mile ever run. Louie had missed the world record by 1.9 seconds. His time would stand as the NCAA record for fifteen years." (p.41)

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On September 29th. he joined the army. He also did not bother to read the papers he signed and consequently agreed to rejoin the corps for future service.

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7. Louie was assigned to the B-24 Liberator

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7. Louie was assigned to the B-24 Liberator

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Louie was hoping for a B-17 Flying Fortress but sadly did not get it. The crewmen gave the nicknames "the Flying Brick" and " the Flying Boxcar" to the B-24.

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When a ground officer complained about the pay, the crew invited him to fly the plane and Louie hid under the navigators table and tugged chains making the place go out of control. When Louie friends stole his beer he stuck gum in the piss pipe. When his friends took his gum, he replaced it with a laxative variety

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Louie and his crew miraculously survives and the Japanese base is destroyed.
"The mission had been a smashing success. Every plane had returned safely. Only one bomb had missed its target, plopping into the water twenty feet offshore. The Japanese base had been gravely damaged-by one estimate, half of its personnel had been killed-and America had demonstrated the reach and power of it's B-24s.. And though the men didn't know it. the American captives had all survived." (p.76)

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The Super Man and other bombers flew to Nauru and Louie dropped bombs onto the island.
"Louie had made a lucky guess and a perfect drop. The shack was a fuel depot, and he had struck dead center." (p. 95)

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US PLANES BOMB NAURU ISLAND - WASHINGTON, Sun, AAP - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) - 29 Mar 1943

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Please enable JavaScript in your browser to get the full Trove experience. × The National Library of Australia's Copies Direct service lets you purchase higher quality, larger sized photocopies or electronic copies of newspapers pages. Clicking on the Order now button below will open the ordering form in a new window which will allow you to enter the details of your request.

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The Zeros attacked the bombers after they bombed Nauru island and injured many men, but the bombers won the fight.
"The submarine crew would later report that not one Zero made it back to Nauru. It is believed that thanks to this raid and others, the Japanese never retrieved a single shipment of phosphate form the island." (p.100)

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12. Funafuti is bombed by Japanese bombers

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12. Funafuti is bombed by Japanese bombers

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The Japanese bombed the island at night and everyone was caught off guard, there was no bomb shelter so everyone had to create makeshift ones in a moments notice. Many people were killed or traumatized. In the bombing, the Super Man was not hit but was still damaged beyond repair.

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Louie and others are sent on a mission to find another lost aircraft at sea. In the process the plane they were flying crashes into the ocean.
"Green Hornet was doomed. The best Phil could do was to try to level it out to ditch. He grunted three words into the interphone: 'Prepare to crash.'" (p.118)

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The National Archives holds a record with details of the downing of the former Olympian's B-24 bomber that left him lost at sea for 47 days

smithsonian.com

It is a good thing that Louis Zamperini was a runner. And not just any runner, but a 4-minute miler and an eighth place finisher in the 5,000-meter event at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Because the endurance the bombadier needed in order to make it home from the Pacific theater was unfathomable.

On May 27, 1943, Zamperini and ten crewmates were searching for a downed aircraft south of Hawaii when they themselves crashed. Two of the engines in their plane, a beat-up B-24 called Green Hornet, had failed. Miraculously, Russell Phillips, the pilot; Zamperini, the co-pilot; and Francis McNamara, the tail gunner survived. The three drifted on rafts, living on albatrosses they killed and feeling sharks rubbing just underneath them. McNamara died on the 33rd day at sea, but, on day 47, Zamperini and Phillips were found and captured in the Marshall Islands, some 2,000 miles from the crash site, by the Japanese. They were taken as prisoners of war and were tortured in a string of camps until being freed at the end of the war.

Zamperini went on to live a long life. His story was told in Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 bestseller , and the 97-year-old passed away this July at his home in Los Angeles, before he could see Unbroken, the major motion picture directed and produced by Angelina Jolie that is opening nationwide this week.

The National Archives has in its collection the Missing Air Crew Report detailing the disappearance of the Green Hornet. I recently interviewed Eric Van Slander, an archivist who specializes in World War II era records at the National Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland, about the record. Click on the highlighted portions of the document to learn more.

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"Unbroken"'s Louis Zamperini Crashed Into the Pacific on May 27, 1943. Here is the Missing Air Crew Report

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smithsonian.com It is a good thing that Louis Zamperini was a runner. And not just any runner, but a 4-minute miler and an eighth place finisher in the 5,000-meter event at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Because the endurance the bombadier needed in order to make it home from the Pacific theater was unfathomable.

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While Louie was stranded on the raft, a Japanese plane saw them. Phil and Mac were too weak to go underwater so they played dead on the raft while Louie went under the water to dodge the bullets only to be attacked by sharks. Luckily, all three men were unharmed, but unfortunately, the raft was leaking air.

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The shark plays with the raft for a while before going back into the ocean.
"The animal was some twenty feet long, more than three times the length of the raft, Louie recognized its features from his survival school training. It was a great white shark.... Around and around the shark went, drenching the raft with each pass. It seemed to be playing with the raft." (p. 163)

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Mac who was one of the three people who survived the plane crash died on the raft. If he had not survived the crash, Louie and Phil would have been dead by the thirty-third day.

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SSgt Francis P "Mac" McNamara (1920-1943) - Find A...

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SSGT USAAF WWII S/N 15100716 11th BG, 42nd BSq SSgt McNamara was born in 1920 in Ireland to Peter McNamara and Harriett (Sweeney) McNamara, who emigrated to America on the S. S. Baltic when he was one month old. His father Peter had been a Seargent in the U.S.

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17. Louie and Phil are captured by the Japanese

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17. Louie and Phil are captured by the Japanese

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Louie and Phil see land and are captured by the Japanese. They stay at a POW camp where they have worse living conditions than when they were on the raft. In addition to that they were stripped of their dignity. They move to a different camp with many prisoners and are beat often and have to follow strict rules. The prisoners become in creative in communicating and obtaining information.

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This Japanese man was spoiled as a child and enrolled in the military. He was assigned to Omori (which is where Louie is staying) to be the disciplinary officer. At first he was nice and friendly but then he gained a fearsome reputation when he realized he was feared and respected for being violent. He targets people who have high rank in the military and don't bow down to him, so naturally, he targets Louie relentlessly.

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The Radio Tokyo men wanted Louie to come to their studio and announce that he was alive. He said yes and they offered him to speak more, but Louie discovered he was being used as a propagandist tool so he refused to say what was scripted and was sent back to camp.

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A single atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the whole city was annihilated. The POWs have never heard of a bomb like that so they found it hard to believe.
"Exactly as the thought crossed his mind, the sky over the city ripped open in a firestorm of color and sound and felling wind. A white light, ten times the intensity of the sun, enveloped the plane as the flash and sound of it skidded out in all directions." (p.300)

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As the Japanese delegation stood on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, preparing to sign the documents that ended World War II, a large formation of Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers swooped low over Tokyo Bay as a reminder of the terrible destruction that had befallen their nation and turned Japan's cities into ruins. It was a reminder the Japanese really did not need-the bombed-out rubble and steadily smoking crematories around the country were evidence enough of the violent firestorm that had befallen the Land of the Rising Sun.

The national morale in Japan was so low that almost 70 percent of the people interviewed by U.S. military personnel after the surrender reported that they had reached the point where they were unable to endure one more day of war. Most Americans, especially the young soldiers and Marines who had been slated to invade the Japanese Home Islands of Kyushu and Honshu, believed that Japan surrendered because of the atomic bomb . They were wrong. In reality, the country had already been brought to its knees before the first atomic test at the Trinity Site in the New Mexico desert two months before. Japan had been destroyed by fire from above, fire that had largely been delivered from the bomb bays of an armada of Boeing B-29s.
Recommended: The Fatal Flaw That Could Take Down an F-22 or F-35 . Recommended: Smith & Wesson's .44 Magnum Revolver: Why You Should Fear the 'Dirty Harry' Gun . Recommended: 5 Best Shotguns in the World (Winchester, Remington and Beretta Make the Cut) . The B-29 Deployment: A Political Decision
The B-29 had come to symbolize American air power by September 1945 because of the role it played in the final defeat of Japan, but the large four-engine bomber had originally been conceived as a weapon for use against Nazi Germany. The initial invitation for bid had been issued in the fall of 1940 as the War Department began preparing for a seemingly inevitable entrance into the war in Europe. Design problems and production delays kept the very long-range bomber out of service until it had become obvious that such range was no longer necessary against Germany. The first production B-29s began rolling off the assembly lines in mid-1943, prompting requests for the new bombers from commanders in each theater.

Lieutenant General George C. Kenney, the air commander in General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area of Operations, was particularly insistent in his claims for the bombers. Not only had Kenney been short-changed in aircraft and crews because of the high priority given to the European Theater, but he had been heavily involved in B-29 development himself when he was in charge of Air Corps research and development at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio, in 1941. Although Air Corps commander General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold was receptive to Kenney's recommendations on use of the B-29s-the Southwest Pacific air commander wanted to use them from Australia, then from the Philippines-he had his own ideas as to where and how they should be deployed.

Arnold was also prompted by his own ambitions. In spite of his high rank and responsibility, he had never seen combat or commanded men in battle. Now he saw an opportunity for his own combat command. Instead of assigning the B-29s to the overseas air forces, he decided to establish a new air force under his personal command, a strategic bombardment unit headquartered in Washington, D.C. The new Twentieth Air Force would be controlled by Arnold's own staff, which would select targets for the huge bombers and command the war from thousands of miles away.

The ultimate decision on deployment of the B-29s was based largely on political considerations, including appeasing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's near-obsession with mounting an aerial bombardment campaign against Japan at the earliest opportunity. The liberal president was up for reelection to an unprecedented third term in 1944 and faced strong opposition from conservatives. The commencement of B-29 raids on Japan would boost his political stock.
"Early Sustained Bombing of Japan"
In spite of their long range, there were only four places in the world close enough to Japan from which B-29s could operate, and one of those, Soviet Siberia, was off limits because of Soviet neutrality in the war with Japan. Bases in the Aleutians were in range of Japan, but the horrific subarctic weather presented problems for the untried bombers. The Joint Chiefs of Staff saw potential for establishing B-29 bases in the Mariana Islands, a concept that pleased Admiral Ernest J. King, the Chief of Naval Operations, because such a move increased the importance of the Pacific Ocean Area of Operations, the only area under U.S. Navy command. King also favored Arnold's plan for an independent command, as it would keep the B-29s away from Douglas MacArthur.

The third option was establishing B-29 advance bases in China, an option that would allow attacks on Japan to commence several months before bases could be established on the island of Saipan in the Marianas, and this was the option Arnold chose. Operations from China were also seen as a means of improving the morale of the Chinese people, who had been fighting the Japanese since 1931.

To command the first B-29s, Arnold selected Brigadier Kenneth B. Wolfe, an ideal choice since he was the project officer for the entire program and was intimately familiar with the airplane. Wolfe established the 58th Bombardment Wing (H) at Marietta, Georgia, where B-29s were being produced, then began training crews at Salina, Kansas. He drew up plans for operations from China called "Early Sustained Bombing of Japan" and given the code name Matterhorn. The Matterhorn plan called for the B-29s to be based in the vicinity of Calcutta, India, with forward operating bases established around Chengtu, China. It was an ambitious plan, particularly in terms of logistics, since all military operations in China were solely dependent on air transportation for supply.

Although there was an established airlift operation from India to China conducted by the Air Transport Command, Wolfe proposed that XX Bomber Command, the organization he would take to India, be entirely self-sufficient. The XX Bomber Command would include its own air transportation group equipped with older Consolidated B-24 Liberators that had been converted into C-87 transports and C-109 tankers. The B-29s would also be used as transports, and after they arrived in India several were converted into tankers to haul gasoline.

In an effort to maintain a degree of secrecy, the War Department took advantage of the B-29 development programs and put out a story that the planes had proven unsuccessful as bombers and were being converted into armed transports for duty in the China-Burma-India Theater. It is unlikely that the Japanese bought the story.
Operation Matterhorn's Stormy Start
The first B-29 to depart for India went by way of England, where it was put on display for publicity purposes in an effort to indicate that the bombers would be used against Germany. B-29s began leaving for India in March 1944. By April they were flying transport missions from Calcutta to Chengtu. Matterhorn called for the first missions to be flown in June, and extensive preparations were made. Plans to airlift their own supplies proved optimistic, and the Air Transport Command was called on to provide additional air transportation. Supply problems were compounded in May when the Japanese went on the offensive in China and the theater commanders had a sudden increased need for supplies. They naturally took those that originally had been intended for Matterhorn, which had yet to fly the first combat mission.

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B-29 Superfortress: The Plane That Bombed Japan into Submission

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As the Japanese delegation stood on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, preparing to sign the documents that ended World War II, a large formation of Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers swooped low over Tokyo Bay as a reminder of the terrible destruction that had befallen their nation and turned Japan's cities into ruins.

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The new broke to the POWs by a Japanese officer but they were wary to believe it. Later, an american plane flew overhead and sent the message that America did win the war. The POWs celebrated all night, but knew that they would all probably be killed in the end.
"Louie stood on wavering legs, emaciated, sick, and dripping wet. In his mind, twi words were repeating themselves, over and over. I'm free! I'm free! I'm free!" (p. 307)

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After many flights across the world, Louie finally reunites with his family. The house was decorated for his homecoming and he opened all of the presents from all the Christmases he missed. He was also asked my many people to give many speeches, so he was very busy.

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They understood each other well because they had alike personalitys. They wanted to get married as soon as possible so they went against their parents wishes. Louie became an alcoholic trying to forget the war and dim his PSTD. Cynthia almost divorces him.

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Cynthia goes alone to listen to Graham because Louie is against religion. She persuades him to come and he becomes very angry and spooked. The next time he comes he has a flashback where he promises God, "If you save me, I will serve you forever." (p.375) and he becomes a changed new man.

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Louie travels to Japan to find the Bird, only to learn that they believed he killed himself. Louie feels compassion for him.
"At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over." (p. 379)