Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier

The Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers were four German Kriegsmarine aircraft carriers that were planned in the mid-1930s by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder as part of the Plan Z rearmament program after Germany and the United Kingdom signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. They were planned after a thorough study of Japanese carrier designs. German naval architects ran into difficulties due to lack of experience in building such vessels, the realities of carrier operations in the North Sea and the lack of overall clarity in the ships' mission objectives.
This lack of clarity led to features such as cruiser-type guns for commerce raiding and defense against British cruisers, that were either eliminated from or not included in American and Japanese carrier designs. American and Japanese carriers, designed along the lines of task-force defense, used supporting cruisers for surface firepower, which allowed flight operations to continue without disruption and reduced the chances of exposure to risks that surface action would have entailed.
A combination of political infighting between the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, disputes within the ranks of the Kriegsmarine itself and Adolf Hitler...