Zimmerit is the textured covering oF cement applied to the sides of the hull and sometimes turrets of German armored vehicles to prevent Soviet/Allied magnetic mines from sticking and disabling the vehicle or killing the crew. This much I understand! But the top of the hull/engine compartment was not covered, so why did the soldiers not just throw the mines on top of the hull/turret/engine compartment? The mine would still stick! The armor would be thinner and therefore more damage would be done inside of the vehicle.
I suppose if you look at the tops of the tanks that zimmerit was applied to, there were too many irregular surfaces like grilles on which Zimmerit couldn’t have been applied. I’m no expert though and I completely agree with the throwing of mines. Zimmerit was probably not applied to the top of turrets because they would’ve been too high to throw a mine onto (as they’re actually quite heavy). As i said, I’m not expert, you just gotta hope someone who knows what they’re talking about shows up.
This is a very interesting observation. It obviously would have been impractical to cover grille doors, etc. on the topdeck. I have never read or seen any photos of a soviet/allied soldier employing a magnetic anti tank mine(other than burying them). If the tank was overrunning a trench, it would have been just as easy to slap the mine on the roadwheel face, as they were not protected. Perhaps the true purpose of the zim was to reduce the magnetic field of the entire tank as not to detonate a magneticallt triggered mine that was buried??? I don’t know.
Maybe the russians figured out it was just a high risk activity getting in such close proximity to a German tank, so the Germans dropped the zimmerit. I have been recently re-reading Panzer Battles, where there are several accounts in the Michael Wittman chapter of him popping the hatch and spraying Soviet infantry off his Tiger with his sub machine gun. It’s possible that the Soviets were employing the "attach a mine " tactic well into the Kursk time frame.
I hope there is an expert out there that can add to this thread.
I think they Germans dropped the zim in late '44. You can’t discount the state of the german economy at the time as a reason for discontinuing zim. Perhaps too much investment for not enough return at a time when they were in real economic distress.
You can not just throw a mine on top of a tank and there by disable it. A magnetic mine is a shaped charge so it has to “point” in a specific direction in order to have any effect and also have a specific distance to the armor surface that it has to penetrate. If you should use a magnetic mine on the top of a tank with any kind of succes you would have to climb on top of it and make sure that it had the magnetic end down, it is not that easy to climb on to a tank where the hull is as tall as yourself and moving.
I think it was placed on the sides and rear because that’s where most of the actual damage came from when these kinds of mines were used.
That said, I don’t think it was too huge of an actual threat when the zimmerit was put on. I’ve understood that the Germans developed these hand-mines, and knew their destructive potential, so put the stuff on their tanks in case the Russians developed something similar.
Another reason for not applying Zimmerit to the horizontal surfaces would be that a mine sitting flat on a deck surface would probably stay pretty much in position regardless of the magnetic adhesion. In other words, if the Russians could somehow manage place a mine correctly on the engine deck or turret roof, with or without zimmerit, gravity would probably hold it in place until it detonated.
I think their main paranoia was having civilians walking along the road brushing up against the tank and placing a hand-mine on it. You guys have all seen the pictures of German tanks driving through towns in France or Italy or Russia – often the civvies are very close.
You might actually be able to furtively place the mine on a side or rear, then walk, do not run, as far away as you can. Clamboring up on top is probably a dead giveway, leading to the probable death of the partisan, meaning you’d have to be fairly nuts to do it.
The partisans would be attacking soft targets like the supply trucks, dumps, and trains. Attacking a Tiger tank column going thru town would not be smart., but the fuel truck as it goes past would be nice now the Panzers have no fuel and can’t move anyway. Very large and immoble pillboxes. Or if it was the ammo truck very large and heavy targets for the Allies.
ABARNE gets 100 points for giving the correct answer.
Seriously, guys, Zimmerit keeps mines from sticking to the tank.
If they are just lying on top of it, they don’t have to stick, so the Zim would be useless.
I like Jason’s answer best…those sneaky Nazis! [:D]
The discontinuation of the zimmerit was a simple matter of practicality actually…no one was using these types of mines to try to knock them out so it’s one less step needed in the manufacturing process…so tanks could theoretically make it out to the field faster…so no more Zimm…
Zimmerit was discountinued in fall of 44, because it was rumored to catch on fire. Not sure where that was dug up.
Since the magnetic mine had to be placed by hand onto the vehicle to attach, in other words, throwing it and hoping it would stick like velcro just wasn’t feasible, running atop a moving tank would be considered wreckless if anything. I assume the Germans considered that tactic unlikely at best and therefore didn’t bother to waste time and material.
Has anyone looked at how high the zimmerit was applied on a tank? If you stood next to say a Ferdinand with your toes touching the track and stretched your arms up you still would not be able to touch above the zimmmerit. The sides of the turrets on Tigers & King Tigers and the entire sides of the Jagdpanthers were done. If the mine was too heavy to “toss” you would not have to do the turrets. If you can climb on the tank and reach the turret why not just set the mine face down over the driver’s hatch/compartment or on the top of the turret. The force of the blast would be aimed straight down at the crew of the gun mechanism. As far as the crew removing the mine before it goes off, just stand by and shoot anyone opening their hatch to remove the mine.
Sounds good to me.
I have found s note that the Germans thought that the coating could ignite when the tank was hit by a shell and destroy the vehicle. They never restarted applying it.
I have yet to see images of Russians applying the mines, however I have seen video of Germans throwing mines at tanks as they roll past. These mines had a handle on the side for easier throwing and they didn’t appear too awful heavy. Maybe 30 to 40 lbs? ? ?
To my understanding, the purpose of most of these mines when applied on the lower hull was to knock-off a track thereby making a pill-box which would be easier to knock out. When applied on the turret I guess it was enough to cause spall inside the crew area and cause damge to crewmen.
However, the show I was watching was the development of the Panzerfaust and they were using the video as an illustration of the dangers in applying anti-tank mines. I don’t see the Russians being too concerned with the state of their soldiers, so I doubt if they cared about the dangers to soldiers applying these mines.
The weight of the mine is going to influence how it lands. Yes it is a shaped charge, however, just the mechanics fo throwing it are going to insure that it lands in the appropriate positon almost certainly.
I can only guess that the reason they stopped was that the suicidal attacks by Russians had stopped by late '44 because they were starting to do so much with the T-34s that they didn’t need this attack anymore and as Ali1kj says, it was to help pick up production speed.