Claims that the tenders prepared Germany for carrier aviation rest on a superficial analogy: both kinds of ship launched aircraft. In contemporary usage, the equipment on tenders and conventional warships was described as a catapult, while carrier launch machinery could be distinguished as an accelerator. The United States Navy did not always preserve that linguistic distinction, and postwar usage settled more broadly on catapult. The terminology matters here because it marks different operating contexts, rather than two names for a transferable German carrier system.
Notable Point · 28:14-30:26
A surface-ship catapult was not a carrier accelerator
Period terminology distinguished tender and surface-ship catapults from the launch systems expected to serve aircraft carriers.