During the late 1930s, the aircraft carrier was a serious part of German naval planning. In February 1939, Admiral Erich Raeder proposed that two aircraft carriers (named Graf Zeppelin and Peter Strasser) be laid down. These carriers were to be equipped with specialized carrier-based versions of the Bf-109E fighter and the Junkers Ju 87B dive-bomber. Construction on the first German aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, was initiated immediately. Messerschmitt's proposal for a shipboard fighter was designated Bf 109T (T for "Trager"). It was basically a Bf 109E-1 with a larger wing, an attachment point for catapult points underneath the fuselage, and an arrester hook underneath the aft fuselage. A breakpoint was incorporated in the wing spar outboard of the gun bays to permit manual folding of the wings. However, the wing folding process was complicated by the need to detach the flaps prior to folding. The landing gear still retracted outwards, but the undercarriage legs were made stronger in order to accommodate the faster sink rates involved in carrier landings. Armament was to consist of two fuselage-mounted 7.9-mm MG 17 machine guns and either two MG-17 machine guns or two 20-mm MG-FF cannon in the wings. The engine was the Daimler Benz DB 601A. Since the Messerschmitt A.G. was fully occupied with Bf 109 and Bf 110 production, responsibility for the Bf 109T project was assigned to the Fieseler Werke. Ten Bf 109E-1s were to be converted to Bf 109T-0 configuration for service test, and 60 Bf 109T-1 fighters were to be built from scratch. The Bf 109T-0s were ready for evaluation during the winter of 1939-40. When the war in Europe began, the Graf Zeppelin was about 85 percent complete, and most of her machinery had been installed. However, work on the Graf Zeppelin was suspended in October 1939 due to a change in German naval thinking. It was deemed that the operation of a single aircraft carrier within range of enemy land bases was impractical, and all work on the Graf Zeppelin was halted in May of 1940. Assembly of the 60 Bf 109T-1 fighters was also halted at the same time. However, the successes of British carrier-based aircraft against the Italian Navy late in 1940 rekindled German interest in ships of this type, and the Fieseler Werke was instructed to complete the 60 Bf 109T-1s then under construction but to remove the naval equipment and deliver them as land-based fighter bombers suitable for operation from short strips. Stripped of naval equipment and fitted with a rack for a 66 Imp gal drop tank, 4 110-lb bombs, or a single 551-lb bomb, the planes were redesignated Bf 109T-2. It was concluded that the Bf 109T-2 would be ideal for operation from small, exposed airstrips such as those from which the Jagdflieger were forced to operate in Norway. Several units operated with the Bf 109T-2 in Norway. However, it never operated in its intended shipboard role. The short-field performance of the Bf 109T lead to surviving Norwegian-based Bf 109T-2s to be based on the tiny fortified island of Heligoland in 1943. The last of the Bf 109T-2s disappeared from the inventory at the end of 1944. | 
