Europa German Aircraft Carrier (Global War Scale)

This can be used for our game Global War 1936 and you can download the Rules for this expansion HERE.
Our latest release for Global War is WAR PLAN Z - Hitler's plan to create a vast Germany navy that could challenge the British Fleet.  In this expansion the German player has an option to commit to building the ships in one of three historically researched plans (1934, 1938 & 1939).

The carrier I was a conversion proposal for the transport ship Europa. The ship was launched on 16 August 1928 and entered service on 19 March 1930 for the German Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping company. Starting in 1939, the ship was used as a floating barracks; the ship was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine for use in the planned Operation Sea Lion, but the operation was abandoned when the Luftwaffe failed to achieve air superiority in the Battle of Britain. Following the loss of the battleship Bismarck in May 1941 and the near torpedoing of her sistership Tirpitz in March 1942, the Kriegsmarine was convinced of the need to acquire aircraft carriers. Several vessels were selected for conversion, including the incomplete heavy cruiser Seydlitz and several passenger liners. Planning for the conversion of Europa into an auxiliary aircraft carrier was started in May 1942.

The ship would have been faster and larger than any of the other ships Germany intended to convert into auxiliary carriers. However, a number of design problems emerged as the drawing up of the conversion plan progressed. Her speed and capacity advantages were offset by several serious practical problems. These included structural weakness, caused by the need to recess the hangar deck into the primary structural deck; instability, normally resolved by adding bulges; and high fuel consumption. Another significant obstacle was the unwillingness of Hermann Göring, the commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, to provide the Kriegsmarine with sufficient aircraft and pilots. By the time the design was completed in November 1942, these problems had proved impossible to rectify, and so the project was abandoned. As a result, no construction work began. After the end of the war, Europa was seized by the US Army and commissioned as a troop transport under the name AP 177 before being transferred to France, where she resumed her commercial duties.