Jade - class aircraft carrier The " Jade " class comprised a pair of passenger ships intended to be converted into auxiliary aircraft carriers by the German Kriegsmarine during World War II . The two ships were launched as " Gneisenau " and " Potsdam " in 1935 and operated in peace time by Norddeutscher Lloyd . After the outbreak of war , the ships were requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine as transports , and in May 1942 , plans were drawn up to convert them into aircraft carriers . The ships were not identical , but were similar enough in size to allow identical outfitting . " Gneisenau " and " Potsdam " were to be renamed " Jade " and " Elbe " , respectively . Once converted , the ships were intended to operate twelve Ju - 87 Stuka dive bombers and twelve Bf - 109 fighters . Work on " Jade " was not started and the conversion project was abandoned in November 1942 . She returned to service as a troopship , only to be sunk by a mine in the western Baltic . " Elbe " actually began the conversion process in December 1942 , but only her passenger fittings were removed by the time work was halted in February 1943 . She was converted into a barracks ship in Gotenhafen and seized by Great Britain after the end of the war . She remained in use until 1976 , when she was broken up for scrap Conversion . Following the loss of the battleship " Bismarck " in May 1941 , during which British aircraft carriers proved instrumental , and the near torpedoing of her sistership " Tirpitz " by carrier - launched aircraft in March 1942 , the Kriegsmarine became convinced of the necessity of acquiring aircraft carriers . Work on the purpose - built carrier " Graf Zeppelin " , which had been halted in April 1940 , was resumed in March 1942 . The Kriegsmarine also decided to convert a number of vessels into auxiliary aircraft carriers . Several passenger ships , including " Gneisenau " , " Potsdam " , and " Europa " were selected for conversion , along with the incomplete heavy cruiser " Seydlitz " . " Gneisenau " and " Potsdam " had been built in the mid - 1930s and operated by Norddeutscher Lloyd on its East Asia Service until the outbreak of war , when they were requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine as troopships . The ships were found to have insufficient stability when converted into aircraft carriers . This was to have been remedied by the addition of side bulges and fixed ballast . The ballast was to have consisted of " concrete armor , " a layer of concrete fitted to the sides of the hulls below the waterline . Conversion work on " Gneisenau " , which was to be renamed " Jade " , never began . The project was abandoned on 25 November 1942 . The design for " Potsdam " , which was assigned the name " Elbe " , was reworked to correct the stability problems . The bulges and concrete armor were discarded and a second outer skin was substituted . Work began on the ship in December 1942 ; only the ship ' s passenger fittings were removed by the time work was halted on 2 February 1943 . This was due to the resignation of Admiral Erich Raeder , the commander in chief of the Kriegsmarine , the previous month . Raeder had resigned in protest of Adolf Hitler ' s order that all surface ships be decommissioned and scrapped in the aftermath of the Battle of the Barents Sea . " Gneisenau " was returned to troopship duties after the project was abandoned , but at 12 : 02 on 2 May 1943 , she was sunk by a mine off Gedser . " Potsdam " was converted into a barracks ship in Gotenhafen , where she spent the remainder of the war . Following the German defeat , the ship was seized by the British on 20 June 1946 as a war prize , who commissioned her as a troop transport under the name " Empire Fowey " . She was sold to Pakistan , who operated her under the name " Safina - E - Hujjaj " until she was broken up for scrap in 1976 . Characteristics . " Jade " was long at the waterline and long overall . " Elbe " was long at the waterline and 203 m overall . Both ships had a designed draft of , and at full load , drew up to . " Jade " displaced , while " Elbe " displaced . The ships had steel - built , welded hulls with twelve watertight compartments and a double bottom . " Jade " was to have been crewed by 79 officers and 804 enlisted men , including 134 Luftwaffe personnel ; " Elbe " s crew arrangements are not known specifically , but would have consisted of approximately 900 officers and men . " Jade " was powered by a pair of Deschimag geared steam turbines . The two turbines drove a three - bladed screw each . Steam was provided by four single - ended high - pressure boilers . " Elbe " s propulsion system consisted of two electric drive motors powered by two turbo - generators . Each electric motor drove a four - bladed screw . The two ships ' engines were rated at and a top speed of , though in service the ships were limited to . They had a maximum range of at 19 knots . As converted , the ships were to be armed with several anti - aircraft guns . The heavy anti - aircraft battery consisted of eight SK C / 33 guns in twin mountings . The mounts were the Dopp LC / 31 type , originally designed for earlier SK C / 31 guns . The LC / 31 mounting was triaxially - stabilized and capable of elevating to 80° . This enabled the guns to engage targets up to a ceiling of . Against surface targets , the guns had a maximum range of . The guns fired fixed ammunition weighing ; the guns could fire HE and HE incendiary rounds , as well as illumination shells . The two guns were supplied with a total of 3 , 200 rounds of ammunition . Close - range anti - aircraft weaponry consisted of twelve SK C / 30 guns and twenty - four to thirty - two Flak 38 guns . The 3 . 7 cm gun was a single - shot gun , with a rate of fire of around 30 rounds per minute . At its maximum elevation of 85° , the gun had a ceiling of . They were supplied with 20 , 000 rounds of ammunition . The 2 cm gun was a magazine - fed automatic weapon , firing at up to 500 rounds per minute . Twenty and forty - round magazines were supplied for the guns ; The guns were supplied with 48 , 000 rounds of ammunition . Aircraft facilities were to have consisted of a long , wide flight deck . Aircraft were handled in a single hangar , which was long and wide . The hangar roof was protected by of Krupp " Wotan Hart " steel armor , while the sides were thick . The ships ' air complement was to have consisted of twelve Bf 109 fighters and twelve Ju 87 Stuka dive - bombers . The Bf 109 fighters were a navalized version of the " E " model , designated as Bf 109T . Their wings were longer than the land - based model to allow for shorter take - off . The Ju 87s were to have been the " E " variant , which was a navalized version of the Ju 87D , and were modified for catapult launches and were equipped with arresting gear .