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Unification of German States - Countries - Office of the Historian

The first war of German unification was the 1862 Danish War, begun over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Bismarck allied with Austria to fight the Danes in a war to protect the interests of Holstein, a member of the German Confederation.

The second war of German unification was the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, which settled the question of “smaller” versus “greater” Germany. This brief war (fought over the course of mere weeks) pitted Prussia and her allies against Austria and other German states. Prussia won and directly annexed some of the German states that had sided with Austria (such as Hanover and Nassau). In an act of leniency, Prussia allowed some of the larger Austrian allies to maintain their independence, such as Baden and Bavaria. In 1867 Bismarck created the North German Confederation, a union of the northern German states under the hegemony of Prussia. Several other German states joined, and the North German Confederation served as a model for the future German Empire.

The third and final act of German unification was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, orchestrated by Bismarck to draw the western German states into alliance with the North German Confederation. With the French defeat, the German Empire was proclaimed in January 1871 in the Palace at Versailles, France. From this point forward, foreign policy of the German Empire was made in Berlin, with the German Kaiser (who was also the King of Prussia) accrediting ambassadors of foreign nations. Relations were severed when the U.S. declared war upon Imperial Germany in 1917.

An aerial view of various aircraft lining the flight decks of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS USS Independence (CV-62), top, and USS Midway (CV-41) moored beside each other at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (USA), on 23 August 1991. Midway was en route from Naval Station, Yokosuka, Japan, to Naval Air Station North Island, California (USA), where it was decommissioned on 11 April 1992. Independence travelled to Yokosuka to take over as the U.S. Navy's forward-based aircraft carrier.

The Midway and her sisters (Franklin D. Roosevelt and Coral Sea) were improvements on the WWII Essex Class Carriers.  The US planned 32 Essex Class carriers and completed a staggering 24 during and shortly after WWII.  The US planned six Midway Class Carriers and began construction on the three that were actually built in 1943 and 1944.  After that it became obvious that the US had more than enough carriers to defeat Japan so the others were cancelled before the war ended.  None of the Midways were commissioned in time to see service in WWII with Midway and FDR commissioned in 1945 just after the Japanese surrender and Coral Sea commissioned in 1947.  The Midways were substantially larger than the Essex Class:

• 45,000 tons vs 27,100 as designed, and up to about Midway's displacement for some post-war modified carriers
• 968' long vs 872' for Essex
• 121' wide vs 93' for Essex (the Essex Ships could transit the Panama Canal, the Midways couldn't)

A family friend in town was what the Navy calls a "Plank Owner" on the USS Midway.  He graduated from HS in 1945 just after the German Surrender and joined the Navy because he wanted to get involved and the war with Japan was mostly a Naval War.  When the war ended three months after he graduated from HS he was training as a tail-gunner in a torpedo plane and when he finished that he was posted to the first squadron of torpedo planes assigned to the brand new USS Midway (commissioned September 10, 1945).  Plank Owners are original crewmembers of a ship.  

Anyway, Roosevelt and Coral Sea were scrapped decades ago but Midway is now a Museum at San Diego.  Someday I'd like to visit.  It is the only Carrier-Museum Ship that is not an Essex Class (CV10 Yorktown at Charleston, CV11 Intrepid at NYC, CV12 Hornet at Alameda, CV16 Lexington at Corpus Christi)

I visited the Midway in SD with my two kids, it was pretty interesting.  The angled flight deck was a huge innovation (British) and the Midway was retro fitted to have it.



Photo taken just after commissioning.

On 28 June 1955, the ship sailed for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where Midway underwent an extensive modernization program (SCB-110, similar to SCB-125 for the Essex-class carriers). Midway received an enclosed hurricane bow, an aft deck-edge elevator, an angled flight deck, and steam catapults, before finally returning to service on 30 September 1957.^[3]

I should have mentioned in my earlier post that the Midways were the last class of US Carrier to be designed and built without an angled deck.  All three had angled decks retrofitted onto them (as did many of the Essex Class) but it was a retrofit as opposed to a part of the original design as on all subsequent US Carriers.  

All subsequent fleet carriers, yes, not all US carriers, the LHA class at least looks like a carrier and can operate the F35.

My brother shipped out on an LHA-class, the LHA-3 USS Belleau Wood (since decommissioned) back in the early 2000s when he was flying the CH-53E.

Thank your brother for his service.  

Those ships are an interesting sort-of hybrid. By WWII standards they'd be considered gigantic and obviously fleet carriers but compared to the Nimitz and Ford Classes they are quite small and operate as landing/amphibious support ships.  The aircraft they carry are designed to land troops and provide ground support.  That is obviously an important role but it is not the same role that the Nimitz and Ford Class ships fill.  Those ships are primarily tasked with providing air supremacy wherever they go.