Zimmerit paste and magnetic mines

Actually I was curious if someone knows what against ( name/picture ) Zimmerit originally was developed and also if Zimmerit worked? Any stats on that? Thanx!

 

Been running a thread on this on another forum as it always slightly puzzled me too.
David Fletcher implies in his recent book on the Churchill that it was a case of ensuring a countermeasure to a weapon that only Germany & Japan had really seriously developed or deployed. There were thousands of British 'Clam' charges supplied to the Soviets with magnetic attachment but they're not really an effective anti-tank weapon. Maybe this is why the coating was withdrawn in late '44, an over the top response to a type of weapon that wasn't being used much by the enemy?
The same Fletcher book shows a surprising picture of a very late war British development of an equivalent paste applied to a Churchill VII (which is displaying an extremely effective camouflage pattern), he implies that if the war continued then this paste was to be moved into full production for use on allied vehicles.
In short, like quite a bit of German tank design, Zimmerit doesn't make much sense to me.
Cheers,
Adam.

 

thats quite interesting, sawdust and glue, i wouldnt have thought....

 

OK, thanx for the info, Otto!!

 

Afraid not, the idea was to create a surface to which magnetic mines would have difficulty in sticking. First of all, a magnet will stick better if you put it directly against the target steel or iron plate, if you put in between a layer of non-magnetic material, the magnetic attraction force will decrease with the distance squared.

Besides, your mine will have a number of magnets (three at least) which are naturally designed to adhere to a flat plate. If you make it a rough surface, the magnets will have irregular adhesion say like a four legged chair with one short leg, so this will imbalance the mine and make it hard to cling on to the target.

 

Although, (rather strangely I thought) British tests of assorted paste compounds of a resinous zimmerit nature finally decided that it could be applied smooth or textured, they certainly advised the Aussie government that this was the case. They indicated that one of the problems of texture was that it made fitting waterproofing gear tricky though it did help to 'matt' the tank down and add to the camouflage effect.

 

Sorry, I didn't read your post carefully enough, then.

This is only my conjecture, but Zimmerit as we all know was applied with a variety of textured tools, and also if it was applied smooth its surface was made irregular in some way or other.

As von Poop said above this was for visual purposes, but I would also say it could also be useful in order to create fracture lines. Say if a bit of Z. was hit it would peel off to the next break line instead of removing the entire panel. As I said, conjecture only but seems logical.

 

link I found this

"Normandy, late 1944. Zimmerit coating, an anti-magnetic mine paste was applied to the vertical surfaces of the hull and turret to prevent magnetic mines from sticking to the hull. This practice was later discontinued when there were reports that it ignited fires when hit by a shell."

and here's the picture :

 

Just thought I'd include that picture of a Churchill with the British 'Zimmerit' applied as it cropped up elsewhere recently and I thought I'd already posted it here?
The British went to great lengths to obtain a 'wet' sample and were rather disappointed after all the effort to find out it was just a resin paste and had no clever anti-magnetic properties at all.
Still, I reckon their research led to one of the most interesting bits of vehicle Camouflage I've seen:

(From David Fletcher's excellent 'Mr Churchill's Tank', Best book on the Churchill's development you'll find anywhere in my opinion.)

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Looks something like what the French tried pre-war on a Char B1 bis. They applied a very elaborate camoflauge pattern mimicing trees and brush and had used various materials to give it a three dimensional look and feel. The idea was discarded as overly complex to apply and because the finish tended to attract and hold mud and dirt ruining its effect.