A fair point.
...though, if I were to nitpick, I'd say it'd lead to unescorted strikes if relied upon. That may well be fine for whatever role it's used for, of course.
I am amazed.
Looking at the history of the Fieseler Fi167 continues to show the insanity of the German attitude toward naval aviation. They ordered the plane for the GZ, which was never completed, so they sold them to the Croats - when GZ was briefly restarted they wanted Stukas as divebombers but no TBRs.
So we have the following:
a) An aircraft carrier that has a poor design and which was never completed more than partly because of the machinations of the Fat Man.
b) A second carrier that was completed up to the armoured deck but which was then stopped and scrapped in June 1940, a month before she had been planned to be launched.
c) Carrier aircraft that are either well-suited for carrier operations (the Fieseler Fi167) or insanely poor (the Me109, with its notoriously narrow undercarriage).
d) No experienced officers or crew in carrier operations in any way shape or form.
Conclusion: a completed GZ would have had a short, nasty and fiery life.
You can't know that. Its well armored, fast and has heavy guns. Several surface raiders made it back. Depends on the use, and they'll need a lot of extra Bf109's.
And a fast learning curve that is granted.
But please consider the early posts, we are looking for a better fighter for carrier use - that would help quite a bit.
So I'm new to this thread, and I'd like to walk through it. We will take the 109, a thoroughly excellent fighter aircraft, and we're going to operate it off a carrier deck. The 109 is already known for being a bit difficult, if not unforgiving to land, requring a high approach speed, and the ability to go through a large attitude change right before landing, and a need to deal with a wing dip to the left a lot of the time when that happens. The narrow under carriage has its problems too. This is already known to be difficult to do on dry land, with large airstrips withe great version of not moving.
The 109T will need to do all of this on a moving carrier deck. If the Graf is sortieing with the Bismarck, it's pilots are doing this for the first time. Carrier landings, which are notoriously stressful, in an underway ship, for the first time, in an aircraft which could be hard to land in the best of conditions.
They are doing this for the first time on a ship that is it sea for the first time, and thus with a great many of the crew in the traditional position of sailors in a shakedown cruise on a new ship, which is clutching the railing or head while vomiting profusely. Everyone is learning on the job, is what I'm saying, in the North Sea or North Atlantic, for the merciful love of Christ. Carrier operations are complicated if your the USN or RN, who've practiced extensively. They are complicated if your the Teikoku Kaigun, with its practice policies of "do it until your fingers bleed, and then do it some more until you do it right."
The F4F was not the 109 by any stretch of the imagination - but it was an excellent airplane for getting off of and back on to the carrier in one piece, which is what a naval fixed wing aircraft is supposed to do. And they were Ensign killers themselves.
And hard is lethal. And their are ten airframes of the 109T on board. And the carrier's systems are, ahem, innovative and optimistic. Bluntly, the Graf sortieing with Bismarck means you are spending several thousand lives and tons of steal to put a single finger four of 109s over the Atlantic, assuming the pilots live that long, which is a serious question. Heck, a malfunctioning Graf coulud be more of a deadweight than the torpedo hit. Look up shake-down cruises - its when ships break spectacularly and hilariously.
Bluntly, the idea is a bad one, and unlikley, considering the nature of the Wehermacht's nuttery has a certain style.
The idea was not unlikely as it was almost carried through. Bad or not.
The 109 was in all likelihood a horrible choice for the job - one gets the feeling that Göring did it on purpose to sabotage the competition.