Had the Milk Cows resupply-torpedoes?

[uhu]

...or they had only fuel (for resupply other U-Boats)?
I found nowhere exact infos about that.

[Dowly]

I´m pretty sure they had torpdoes too.

[VonHelsching]

I have seen pictures at uboat.net with torpedo transfers from the milk cows to the u-boats. It was not an easy task; and this had to be done exposed, while on the surface...

[clive bradbury]

They definitely carried eels as well.

[uhu]

Well, I asked that, because, uboat.net and other souces says nothing about that, only over fuel.
No infos, how many torps they had on board for resupply (for attack purposes, they had no torps).

[tycho102]

As I understand it, there were screw-in attachments on the torpedoes, and they attached buoys to each individual one, then floated them across to the boat.

Most hazardous. Not only from the sheer mass of the torpedoes, since they could easily crush your foot or hand if you got caught, but the rough seas and cranking the thing onto the deck and lowering it into the boat. I would not be surprised to see that boats only took on a few torps, rather than a full 10+ load.

[STEED]

Try here - http://www.sharkhunters.com/typeXIV.htm

Some info for you.

[Stiebler]

The Type XIV U-tankers carried four torpedoes for resupply to other boats. They were stored below the wooden planks on the upper deck. It was time consuming and difficult to transfer them to other U-boats - obviously only possible in fine weather - and the "world record speed" for transfer of a single torpedo was about 20 minutes. On one occasion, a heavy torpedo fell out of its lines and crashed hard onto the saddle-tanks of the U-tanker, causing severe local damage to the diving cells (but no explosion).

All the U-tankers had constant worries about maintaining proper trim and buoyancy. They were pumping out light oil and replacing it with heavier water. So they got heavier as the mission went on. The designers had assumed that transfer of other supplies (food, drinking water, torpedoes) would compensate. But, in practice, very few U-boats wanted the torpedoes. So the U-tankers ended up taking out disposable iron ballast that they would jettison as the mission proceeded.

The U-tankers also could carry out minor repair work, and carried a ship's doctor. They really were floating, very small, bases and were very popular with other U-boat crews. The on-board bakery apparently created a fantastic bread - wonderful for those who had become accustomed to eating mouldy bread.

Stiebler.

[uhu]

Mates, thanks for the info!
So, we can say, that, if somebody want to use the milk cow mod realisticly, than mostly no new torps should our U-Boat get. Or maximum 4, but not more.

Hmm, maybe Sansal or somebody else from the mod-lords could integrate this?

[AntEater]

Auxilary Cruisers like Atlantis carried spare torpedoes for Submarines. Despite all being G7A types, the submarine torpedoes and the torpedoes for their own use were kept seperate, but that was maybe due to the fact that Auxiliary Cruisers mostly carried WW1 destroyer tubes and maybe also WW1 torpedoes.
I dont know the exact number but it was usually around 20-30.
It often strikes me that the resupply torpedo numbers in ALL tenders/supply ships were far too few for the fast pace torpedoes were actually fired (German prewar sub tenders only carried 24 torpedoes!).

Dönitz recognized this problem and that was the reason for the development of the VIIF torpedo transport boats.
As it came, the 4 boats of that class only became operational when the Atlantic warfare was almost over and there was no need for torpedo resupply anymore, and also the complimentary U-Tankers had been destroyed.
For that reason, the VIIFs were only used as torpedo transports between bases, 2 to the far east (both sunk) and two to Norway.
Keep in mind these VIIs, like the VIID minelayers, were considerably longer than a VIIC and had a much longer range.
It might look absurd to carry torpedoes in a submarine for such a short way but in 1944 air attacks on Germany-Norway convoys were common and torpedoes were far too valuable to be lost in a normal merchant ship.
According to Clay Blair, two dutch submarines (UD 3 and UD 5) were actually used as torpedo supply boats in 1942 to support IXs going to the south Atlantic.
He mentions one of those dutch boats actually sank a ship, but makes no mention wether torpedo supply operations took place.
These dutch submarines originally had a french style traversable twin torpedo mount on deck, so I suppose this was replaced by externally stored torpedoes.
Dutchsubmarines.com writes conversion is not confirmed, but it is confirmed both boats operated in the south Atlantic, as the only captured boats to be used operationally (UA wasnt really a captured boat).