'Milchkuh' or Milkcow's were U-boats that carried extra fuel and supplies to re-supply other U-boats at sea to extend their operational range.

   My question is does anybody here know how long a refueling at sea would take? I know it was dangerous work, (even by U-boat standards) as no milchkuhs survived.

                        Thanks

 Hi!

The Milchkuh  was a good idea, but by 1942/43 it was too late. The war in the Atlantic had changed.  The U-Boats were now the hunted not the hunters. Any U-boat on the surface was in great danger. The Milchkuhs also had sub-standard crews and officers.  The officers were on the most part Reserve Officers, the crews poorly trained.  Their U-boat poorly equiped and crewed were just a disaster waiting to happen. And most were either captured or sunk. 

Regards,

  At first this sounded odd to me, you would think they would have top notch crews, but I suppose they were having a hard enough time in 1942/43 just trying to make good the loses in U-boat crews. Thanks for all the great info Dan

 Hi !

The Milchkuhs were not meant to be Front- line Booten. The frontline boat had the best trained crews. The crews got younger during the war but the training was par with the crews that were earlier. I943-1945 was the hardest for the trainng and the crews. But even with the loses, the U-Boot Service had enough personel for crews.

Regards,