The Type XIV U-boat was designed to resupply other

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

s,Rössler (2001), p. 151. being the only

submarine tender A submarine tender, in British English a submarine depot ship, is a type of depot ship that supplies and supports submarines. Development Submarines are small compared to most oceangoing vessels, and generally cannot carry large amounts of foo ...

s built which were not surface ships. It was nicknamed in German the "''Milchkuh/Milchkühe (pl.)''" (English: milk cows).Williamson (2005), p. 16.

Design

The Type XIV was based on the Type IXD long-range U-boat design, but with a shorter and deeper hull. The boats had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. The U-boats had a total length of , a

pressure hull A submarine hull has two major components, the ''superstructure'' and the ''pressure hull''. The external portion of a submarine’s hull—that part that does not resist sea pressure and is free-flooding—is known as the “superstructure” i ...

length of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarines were powered by two

Germaniawerft Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft (often just called Germaniawerft, "Germania (personification), Germania shipyard") was a German shipbuilding company, located in the harbour at Kiel, and one of the largest and most important builders of U-boats for ...

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically powered (usually by ...

four-stroke, six-cylinder

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s producing a total of for use while surfaced, two

Siemens-Schuckert Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & H ...

2 GU 345/38-8 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. They had two shafts and two

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

s. The boats were capable of operating at depths of up to . The submarines had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boats could operate for at ; when surfaced, they could travel at . The boats were not fitted with

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s nor

deck gun A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose w ...

s. The only armament carried was for defense, consisting of two SK C/30 anti-aircraft guns with 2500 rounds as well as a C/30 gun with 3,000 rounds. The boats had a

complement Complement may refer to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class collections into complementary sets * Complementary color, in the visu ...

of fifty-three.

Operation

Due to its large size, the Type XIV could resupply other

boats A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways s ...

with of fuel, of motor oil, four

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

es, and fresh food that was preserved in refrigerator units. In addition, the boats were equipped with a small bakery in order to provide the luxury of fresh bread for crews being resupplied. The Type XIV also had a doctor and medical facility for injured sailors, and even had a two-man

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

to imprison sailors awaiting discipline back at home. Type IXC boats otherwise only carried 12 weeks of food supplies, and Type VIIC U-boat carried about 114 tons of diesel fuel. Cargo was transported by means of a inflatable boat and portable cranes. The flat main deck with cargo hatches and davits was designed in theory to facilitate the transfer of bulk supplies, however its low freeboard made this work extremely hazardous in typical North Atlantic swells that made the deck awash, so often supplies had to be hand-lifted through the smaller but drier conning tower hatches to avoid flooding the boat. Resupply and refueling operations often took hours, putting both the milk cow and the submarine it was servicing at risk. If the Germans came under Allied attack during a resupply operation, the milk cow would dive first while the attack submarine might fight it out on the surface for a while, as the Type XIV's bulk and flat deck made it slower to maneuver and submerge, although it could dive deeper than Type VIICs or IX. The Type XIV had no

s or

s, only defensive armament of

anti-aircraft guns Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-bas ...

. The milk cows operated off the North American mainland in the so-called

mid-Atlantic gap The Mid-Atlantic gap is a geographical term applied to an undefended area of the Atlantic Ocean during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. The region was beyond the reach of land-based RAF Coastal Command antisubmarine (A/S) air ...

, far enough from Allied anti-submarine patrols and land-based aircraft while still close enough to provide logistical support to U-boats. In 1942, the milk cows enabled

Type VIIC Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

boats to remain on station for a couple more weeks off of the American coast during the "

Second Happy Time The Second Happy Time (; officially (), and also known among German submarine commanders as the "American Shooting Season") was a phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping and Allied naval ve ...

" raids of the

Battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allies of World War II, ...

. The milk cows were priority targets for

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

forces, as sinking one milk cow would effectively curtail the patrols of a dozen attack U-boats and force them to return home for supplies.

Ultra Ultra may refer to: Science and technology * Ultra (cryptography), the codename for cryptographic intelligence obtained from signal traffic in World War II * Adobe Ultra, a vector-keying application * Sun Ultra series, a brand of computer work ...

intercepts provided information concerning sailing and routing of the milk cows. This intelligence, coupled with improved Allied radar, air coverage, and hunter-killer groups in the North Atlantic, eliminated most of the milk cows during 1943 including four lost in the month of July alone. By the end of the war all ten had been sunk. Milk cow duty was especially hazardous; 289 sailors were killed out of an estimated complement of 530–576 men.

List of Type XIV submarines

Ten boats of this type were commissioned: * , commissioned on 15 November 1941, scuttled on 24 July 1943 * , commissioned on 24 December 1941, sunk on 4 October 1943 * , commissioned on 30 January 1942, sunk on 30 July 1943 * , commissioned on 5 March 1942, sunk on 30 July 1943 * , commissioned on 2 April 1942, sunk on 16 May 1943 * , commissioned on 30 April 1942, scuttled on 20 August 1942 * , commissioned on 21 December 1942, sunk on 13 July 1943 * , commissioned on 1 February 1943, sunk on 26 April 1944 * , commissioned on 8 March 1943, sunk on 4 August 1943 * , commissioned on 27 March 1943, sunk on 12 June 1944 Fourteen planned Type XIVs were cancelled. Three of them (''U-491'', ''U-492'', ''U-493'') were about 75% complete when work was stopped in 1944. The other eleven boats had not been laid down when they were cancelled on 27 May 1944. On that same day

Karl Dönitz Karl Dönitz (; 16 September 1891 – 24 December 1980) was a German grand admiral and convicted war criminal who, following Adolf Hitler's Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide, succeeded him as head of state of Nazi Germany during the Second World ...

stopped construction on the

Type XX U-boat During World War II, Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' considered various submarine designs for specialized operations or improving U-boat performance. Many of these designs did not come to fruition for various reasons; some were abandoned due to p ...

s, large transport boats that would not have been ready until mid-1945.

Citations

Bibliography

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External links