Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

One other thing about carriers is the support ships they need to be effective, even today of course.  Nobody uses a carrier alone (aside from perhaps as a decoy), they need some destroyers and cruisers in support for anti sub and AA (and oilers probably).  Were the Germans going to build up enough for an actual carrier task force?  I doubt it.

My guess is the Graf Spee was designed thinking Germany would take over Europe and perhaps start looking afar for other places down the road.  It's not very useful for fighting a land war in Russia.  

One other thing about carriers is the support ships they need to be effective, even today of course.  Nobody uses a carrier alone (aside from perhaps as a decoy), they need some destroyers and cruisers in support for anti sub and AA (and oilers probably).  Were the Germans going to build up enough for an actual carrier task force?  I doubt it.

My guess is the Graf Spee was designed thinking Germany would take over Europe and perhaps start looking afar for other places down the road.  It's not very useful for fighting a land war in Russia. 

Vanity project?  

Political statement?

Decoy / carrier in being?  

It also *MIGHT* have been useful in a theoretical limited war against a neighboring country but in WWII up against the RN and USN it was pretty useless and you are obviously right that it wasn't helpful at all on the Eastern Front.  

Well, it's in the Weird History Books, so it has to be true.

This view of Ponce de Leon Ball Park also known at various times as Cracker field and Spiller Park dates to around 1910 where you can see the wooden grandstands. These grandstands burned to the ground in 1923 on the day that the then owner’s (Rell J. Spiller) granddaughter, Louise Suggs, was born. Suggs went on to become a very famous golfer and was one of the founders of the LPGA. By 1924, the park had been rebuilt with concrete to replace the wooden grandstands.

The park served as the primary home of the minor league Atlanta Crackers for nearly six decades. The Crackers played here in the Southern Association (1907–1959) and the International League (1962–64). The park also served as a temporary home for the Negro League Atlanta Black Crackers in 1932 and again in 1938.

A huge Magnolia tree, halfway up a steep embankment with no fence, was in play in right-center. During exhibition games, both Babe Ruth and Eddie Mathews hit drives that became stuck the distant tree. The park hosted the fastest game in organized baseball history (at the time) on September 17, 1910, when the Mobile Sea Gulls defeated the Crackers in only 32 minutes; it was the last game of the season, and the two teams wanted to see how fast a baseball game could be played. (That record was eclipsed in 1916 during a North Carolina State League game.)

After the Crackers moved to Atlanta Stadium in 1965, Ponce de Leon Park was demolished in favor of a shopping center, and today a strip mall, Midtown Place, occupies the location. The famous Magnolia tree is still standing at the rear of the mall along the Beltline trail. 

Black crackers???

Weird

oxymorons are weird

We're visiting there in September, I look forward to it, watched a few videos of the city.  Our neighbor will be our tour guide.