Author: Goldie Man
Versión en Español  

The end of the spring and the beginning of summer of 1943 marked the most algid point in the German offensive operations, and was in this period that the zimmerit was introduced. The zimmerit was a material applied to all the vertical and inclined surfaces of the German armored vehicles in an effort to counteract the Soviet magnetic and adhesive mines, that need a flat steel surface to adhere enough time so that the explosive damages or destroy the vehicle. The horizontal surfaces didn't require such a protection because the mines could simply lean on, without necessity of being stuck. The development of the zimmerit offered protection against the magnetic mines simply placing a layer of non metallic material between the imam of the explosive load and the vehicle. The zimmerit was not an antimagnetic material, but it created an irregular surface that reduced the contact area to place the mine, which fell for their own weight, helped by the vibration of the vehicle in movement. 

Composition 

According to a British report of 1945, the zimmerit was developed in Berlin by the company Chemische Werk Zimmer AG (of there the name), was basically a polymer and it consisted on 40% of barium sulfate, 25% of polyvinil acetate, 15% of pigment ocher, 10% of sawdust and 10% of zinc sulfate. The zimmerit was used until half-filled of 1944, when it was retired progressively for its fail over improved antitank mines (the rockets in particular) and because usually enter in combustion before the impact of some projectiles, besides the fact that the German operations of that period were essentially of defensive nature. 

Application 

For their application, the product was not used as paint and therefore it didn't require to be diluted. The surface of the vehicles neither required a special preparation, the base of traditional anticorrosive painting was only used. The zimmerit was applied in two layers with a metallic spatula. The first layer was of about 5 mm of thickness and was made a drawing in form of squares using the border of the spatula. This drawing favored the adherence of the second layer. The first layer of zimmerit allowed to dry off to ambient temperature during 24 hours. The second layer was marked with irregular lines with a metal tool in comb form. The final drawing gave him a rough and irregular appearance. After having applied the two layers, was carried out a drying by means of a gas torch to harden them. This took around one hour for vehicle. The final result was seemed the one that have the pressed sheets of cardboard and it was not brittle, but compact and very stingy to the metal. If the forced drying was not used, to the zimmerit took eight days outdoors to become hard. Also, the drying to high temperature increase their resistance to the blows. The zimmerit was also resistant to the water, but due to the behavior of the vinyl acetate was brittle to very low temperatures. There are many pictures and movies in those that armored vehicles are come with parts of the zimmerit removed. A great quantity of historical references indicates that several types and different zimmerit designs were used. The applications in the factory were generally neat and uniform apparently, while the applications in the field were not it so much, mainly keeping in mind the battle conditions and the available time for the company to complete the application. The application increased considerably the weight of the vehicles. According to the British report that is based this article, a StuG required 70 kg, a Panzer IV, 100 kg; a Panther, 160 kg and a Tiger I, 200 kg. Additionally, the texture of the application that was different for each vehicle type, and served as camouflage, especially when the vehicles were in forests, because the rough surface looked like that of the trunks of the trees or that of the earth in woody areas. According to the camouflage required by the vehicles that it depended on area of operations, was applied additional painting with the required colors. However, in many circumstances, the soldiers carried out their own camouflage using branches, trunks, mud and covering the tanks first with engine burnt oil and sprinkled sand. 

Different designs 

The following list tries to be a synopsis of types of vehicles and the zimmerit design generally associated with each one. Anyway, you notice that there were exceptions (especially for the applications in the field) that can, in occasions, contradict this list. This is a very general guide, for what is important to consult all the possible references before using it in a model, if what is looked for is historical accuracy.