From ballistic missiles to atomic weapons and, of course, the first jet fighters, it's commonly thought the Germans were as much as a full decade more advanced than the Allies at times during the war.
But not every megaproject the German war machine devised managed to have a career of great circumstances. Even if one of Hitler's so-called wonder weapons managed to get off the drawing board, that doesn't always mean it was used on a grand scale against the Allied nations.
This is the story of the Graf Zepplin class aircraft carrier, the German megaproject that did little but sat on the sidelines for the entire war before being used as target practice by the Soviets.
In the aftermath of the First World War, the victorious Allied nations would use the Treaty of Versailles as a tool to dismantle Germany, in particular's ability to wage war on the ground, in the air, and on the high seas. Capping its Army, Air Forces, and Navy to fractions of their size during the war.
