I've seen quite a few comments regarding the sea mines portion of the video. Obviously as this was specifically on Zimmerit I only very briefly touched on that topic so I didn't go into any full detail on the way that it functions. I was just comparing a similar technology to show that Zimmerit was not alone in it's general purpose. I'll likely cover sea mines in the future since clearly it's a topic with similar amounts of interest. Edit: I was able to remove the section of the video containing the error so it won't confuse anyone while hopefully still getting my point across about the similarities of the two concepts.
The US Army did the same thing with the same effects 20 years ago with their Kevlar vests….the troops thought they were bullet proof and had extra confidence while wearing them……unfortunately though, years later when we invaded Afghanistan we discovered that an Ak-47 round (7.62) would go right through them like they were made of tissue. The military had known the vests were ineffective against small arms fire from day one and the only thing they stopped was flak, shrapnel and bayonets. Thankfully the Army had developed an alloy plate insert for the vests that would stop 7.62 rounds that they quickly issued out.
@@Dj.MODÆO If that would be true, US soldiers must be very very dumb. I was '99 in the german army and in KFOR, we knew exactly that the kevlar vest would stop max a 9mm and the Bristol vest (Kevlar with ceramic plates) was rated to stop 3 7.62mm NATO hits (when hit on one of the ceramic plates). In Kosovo i didnt had contact with the US Army, they were in a differnt sector than i, but im pretty pretty sure they already had similar vest to the Bristol, long befor Germany bought theirs from the UK for KFOR. And no, the kevlar vest did not stop bayonets or knifes.
Interesting that these tanks applied with zimmerit were supposed to be anti magnetic but had properties that enabled them to resist heating up and gave them additional concealment. It's a very situational appliance but it is interesting that concealment and resistance to heat were the benefits of it. If dragons were alive, zimmerit would have been the perfect application lol
Dragons would likely just pick tanks up and drop them, like the raprors do with turrles or eggs. Also, in the world where hostile dragons exist, it's unlikely people would be able to advance the technology to the modern age due to a constant struggle for survival.
German Engineers: "So, the armor works great, right?" Crew: "Sure! Helps with concealment, and against burning to death! Can it come in skull-pattern?" Engineer: "No, does it work against magnetic mines?" Crew: "Um... maybe? Our enemy doesn't use those."
@The fastest milkman in the West there are very rarely used on what i understand also magnetic mines/grenades are considered costly to manufactured asides the introduction of much better anti tank weapons like bazookas and piat (projector infantry anti tank) were more common to be used and much safer than anti tank grenades (although it's still used up today like molotov -homemade incendiary bottle grenade-)
@The fastest milkman in the West The Brits used the Hawkins grenade but it really wasn't that useful, you'd be lucky if you managed to blow off a track. Zimmerit or not there is no way a Hawkins can hurt a fucking Tiger.
Soviets: “I see! The Zimmerman Paste is meant to be used to prevent fire attacks on it!” Germans: It’s anti magnetic mine armor! Soviets: “No that’s stupid, who would waste time on making something that we rarely use?” Germans: *Screams in German*
@@matthiwi6901 ... "we never surrender!" auf Deutsch: "wir kapitulieren niermals!" ........ and now you have to do 50 pushup's fot forgetting the capital "D" in Deutsch ! ;-)
@@tubab72 now you have to be invaded for not being german. You only capitalize nouns, official titles or respectful adresses. In our case, "deutsch" is an adjective, not to be capitalized, while a nominalized adjective like "im Deutschen" which means in the german language, which are capitalized. Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache.
@@matthiwi6901 ... I was pretty sure that changed. Will have to look it up now. As far as the invasion goes ... you Germans have been doing that every summer for as long as i can remember. Hope to see you again on a Dutch beach this summer and thanks for this entertaining conversation.
The whole "Defending against your own weapons" thing is common in military circles and was discovered to still be a problem after the fall of the Soviet Union when a lot of Western aircraft were tested against their likely Soviet opponents and it was found to still have influenced both sides.
Very thoughtful of the Germans; apply Zimmerit to your tanks so when the Soviets capture them they're immune to your own magnetic anti-tank mines. Because nobody else used them.
@@Ruzaraneh not to mention that they only ran well on gasoline (petrol), which was in short supply on the eastern front, when the 'diesel' T34 ran on basically anything that burned in a pinch
Others have mentioned that "magnetic sea mines" generally refer to mines with magnetic triggers, but I'd like to point out that specifically degaussing was a countermeasure for magnetic triggers and not magnetic attaching limpet mines. Magnetic triggers were designed to detect magnetic field disturbances caused by ships. Ships would cause these disturbances because they're giant loops and plates of magnetic material constantly moving through a magnetic field. Degaussing wouldn't affect the ability of magnetic attachment to a hull, because it doesn't change the ferric nature of the metals used in the ship. Otherwise, thanks for another interesting and informative video
Yes. Degaussing coils are to minimize magnetic detection, not to minimize magnetic attraction. In addition to mines that triggered on a disturbance of the magnetic field, torpedoes, of all combatants, also employed magnetic triggers. They ALL had teething problems, and would often fail to detonate, early in the war. The infamous US MK14, also had this problem, tacked on to already extensive list of issues. They were all resolved in the end, but it took a while, and is no conciliation, if your sub got sunk due to this weapons failure.
@@GrayLensman51 That's a bit much. Honestly I only learned how magnetic sea mines worked after taking a college course specifically about designing and operating naval weapons and weapons systems. ConeOfArc does a good job, he points out sources, when sources conflict, and when he speculates. We all have gaps in our knowledge and that's fine, we learn and we use what we learned going forward.
It would have made perfect sense for the Soviets, with their abundance of green infantry ("Tank On - Apply Directly to Tank"), but it was a stupid idea for the Germans and in any case the Soviets preferred Molotovs, which Zimmerit did nothing against.
@Hans Blitzkrieg Pervitin? That was produced till 1988. In '41 it was changed in the Wehrmacht from free to only give on the order of a doctor, after the war it you could buy it free like aspirin again.
@@vaelophisnyx9873 " it actually did perform not terribly against fire so" I'm sorry, can you translate that into English for me? I don't speak Short Bus.
Funny that the magnetic defense part was underwhelming, but then on accident it's fire and heat retardant enough to prevent a magazine detonation . And a little camo thrown in
magnetic mines, sea mines did not "stick" to the ships. rather the mines used a magnetic triggered firing system. The magnetic trigger sensed the nearby passing of an iron ship. the mines were NOT magnetically attracted to the ship.
Exactly! Naval mines used the effect of magnetism for exactly the opposite reason, so the ship need not touch the mine to detonate it as well as making it more likely that the mine will explode under the ship instead of against the side, doing more damage.
After WWII, a Wehrmacht officer said: Our tanks could take out any ten Shermans! But there was always an eleventh Sherman ... That was the real engineering problem for the Germans.
It wasn't an engineering problem, it was a logistical problem.... being hopelessly outnumbered and under-supplied compared to a British Empire that was able to source raw materials from all over the globe, together with an American partner that could manufacture whatever was needed without any risk of the war interfering with production.
thats not the point.. the point is being able to by past your own defenses if you wanna you know fight back not just defended or take back choke points..
I think a part that is heavily overlooked is that the very fact that the germans had something that would make magnetic mines less effective would deter the allied forces from using them in the first place.
Yeah, I notice that a lot in retroactive war coverage. There's a lot members on both sides didn't do simply because the other already knew how to counter it or an ally already had it covered, but people just casually dismiss it as "wasted effort lel". Bonus fact, the British and USA both had excellent long range flamethrowers by the same point in the war that zimmerit coating was employed. Regardless if they'd documented knowledge of it's capabilities as a flame retardant or not, it probably kept more than a few Nazi tank crews wreaking havoc longer than they could've otherwise.
Wouldn’t it also be beneficial to have them put effort into mass producing tank mines only for them to be ineffective and useless? That sounds like a good deception too
@Lawofimprobability This is not correct, both official accounts and anecdotal evidence suggest otherwise. The Allies used chaff at Operation Gomorrah 1943, for example. My grandpa also used to collect chaff from the fields for christmas tree decoration as a child.
I wonder if any of the ingredients in the mixture experience any chemical change when exposed to fire? If the Soviets took their samples from a burned out tank rather than a captured one that could explain differences.
Well, the PVA plastic/glue and the wood at 1:16 are definitely changing after a toast… On the other hand it’s blowtorch-dried for one hour at production so I guess extra toasting isn’t going to do much?
@@jooot_6850 Yeah, it would be hotter and a far more sustained heat. The wood would turn to carbon and who knows what other chemical changes would take place. It could definitely be enough to give false positives under a 1940s microscope. I doubt they would have othered testing its composition more than once or twice.
1:46 pretty sure magnetic naval mines don't actually stick to the ships, they just use magnetism to detect the presence of the ship nearby and then detonate
Magnetic detonators are tricky things. You gotta account for variations in the earth’s magnetic field or they could be too sensitive or not sensitive enough. The change in field as a mass of metal passed by would fire the detonator and set off the explosive. Sea mines and torpedoes were designed to go off below a ship and do nasty things with a cavitation bubble.
Depends on exactly what kind of mine you're talking about. The magnetically triggered mines that degaussing cables helped protect the ship from were not much of a thing in land warfare. The purpose of degaussing the ship is to reduce or eliminate the distortion in earths magnetic field caused by the passage of a huge mass of ferrous metal. The mine frequently is a bottom mine, and when it detects a sudden change in Earth's magnetic field, it explodes. There were magnetic limpet mines developed about the same time as their land based equivalents, and degaussing the ship has no effect on them. They'll stick just fine. The Naval version had to be placed on the target exactly like the land based version. For a ship, the proper defense against these is various nets, patrols of small boats, lookouts and a couple of cases of hand grenades.
I haven't watched your vids in a while, but honestly seeing the new intro for cursed by design just brought a glimmer of unexplainable happiness. It looks very nice, keep at it =)
This is the kind of information I didn't know I was interested in knowing. And a beautiful voice and soul that I enjoy the presence of. You are such a beautiful person.
The heat resistance makes sense if you compare the suggested composition of zimmerit to the insulating blocks used in a kiln or a forge. Quartz is a crystalline silica and silica is a basic insulating mineral. So they kinda "invented" the heat tiles like they use on space craft for re-entry.
only the space shuttle and now the Starship prototypes use heat insulating tiles. All other crafts use ablatives which boils off taking away the heat from the craft itself and is the same principle that prevents liquid water from going higher then it's boiling temperature.
@@philmckenna5709 Language is a human construct that has existed for eons and only a couple thousand years as a written form. The written form itself being codified through dictionaries in the last 200-300 years. Back then words were codified by how they were pronounced at the time. Making distionaries record of spoken languages of the time they were created. Since then spoken language as continued to evolve but mentally challenged and power hungry men have been enforcing 200 year old spelling that don't reflect modern language at all. The plural of craft can be crafts and there's nothings you can do about it other then commit crimes against humanity so shut your fucking mouth before I go full Alies on you like the fucking natzi that you are. P.S. natzi is a acceptable version of nazi since it's the short for of "NATionalsoZIalismus". So eat me
@@jbrizzle4725 Oh excuse me, I did not know it was illegal to form a well researched opinions on the nature of spelling. I will try and find a quote too to hide the fact that I can't think. Here it goes: ""faciem durum cacantis habes""
Nice job. I enjoy the chronological presentation of the information, showing the development, deployment and retraction of the technology. Also your thoroughness and articulate delivery. I look forward to keeping an eye out for other videos of yours.
It was applied in 4 different patterns and it's main effect seem to have been for camouflage. 200 tons were shipped to Australia after the war for further testing and the results were the same. No good at anti magnetic but good at breaking up the lines of the tank when in "Undergrowth"
@@dindrmindr626 The patterns that i know of are the "Square", "Waffle" "Square with Vertical/Horizontal lines" and "Horizontal Lines" if you can give me any details on the others you talked about i greatly appreciate it
@@dindrmindr626 Thanks for that...the zigzag is a really interesting looking one, i shall be trying that pattern out on my next model i'll be making......but it won't be on a Panzer IV
No, not for coloration but for breaking up the lines of the tank It’s pretty easy to spot a green square in some bushes Also heat resistant so burning to death or ammo heating up to much was not a problem Prolly provided insulation to
Germany: we need Zimmerit to protect our tanks from enemy magnetic mines Allied Nations: BUT YOU ARE THE ONLY NATION USE THE MAGNETIC MINE ON FIELDS,GERMANY
Their idea was there. Magnetic mines seem like a next step in anti tank weapon development for countries because the mines will always stick and as such much better compared to normal anti tank blasting charges Problem was that no one bothered developing them for some reason. Likely believed it was a dead end or thought normal at weapons worked well enough
@@GrumpyIan the G11 is actually fairly well-designed and about as simple as it could realistically be to meet the specification requirements. It's just that the requirements were dumb. NATO wanted a rifle that could drastically improve hit probability in combat, decades of testing by the US starting in the 1950s running right through the 1990s achieved very little. They tried putting two bullets in one cartridge, then three bullets, then they tried flechette rifles and caseless ammunition, and H&K were eventually roped in in the 1980s to make a 3-round-hyperburst weapon to fulfill the US' needs and replace the G3 for the Bundeswehr. Needless to say the clockwork nightmare of a gun was never officially adopted by either nation. The Russians did something similar with the 2-round hyperburst AN-94, a gun almost as complex with essentially two guns in one fed by chains and pulleys. AN-94 did get adopted by special forces and has allegedly served in combat in limited numbers.
@@lunatic_nebula9542 It can help prevent civilian casualties (at least in theory) Not that the Germans or the allies were particularly worried about that in WW2 but just in general.
Zimmerit might have been invented as an anti mine layer but probably saw continued service for its camoflauging properties, hence why it was still issued to troops even in the field to apply. There's quite a few images of crew applied paste that was specifically textured in the iconic slatted fashion because it dried matte and hid the tank's flat reflective surface and unlike paint which just colours the plates it also breaks up the harsh lines and faces
I have seen and tested zimmerit first hand at the canadian war museum in ottawa. It does work as intended against magnet and would definitely prevent mines from sticking to the tank.
I had always thought that stuff was stick welded hardfacing, I only found out a few years ago that it was just a cement-like paste applied for magnetic mines.
@@insertgoodname4809 I thought so too lol, but I guess it makes sense why they wouldn't do that with how long it would take (the video _did_ said they were using unskilled labor to apply the zimmerit and couldn't wait the full 8 days to dry so they used torches, sounds like stick welding every square inch of the tank might take just a tad longer than that🤣) , and I imagine it would induce a lot of stress in the armor as well, could cause cracking issues... But if it was done right and stress relieved and all that I imagine it would probably increase the durability by a little bit at least, having a hardened surface would probably completely deflect small hits and mitigate bigger hits vs a standard hardness armor.
Magnetic sea mines utilise changes in the earths magnetic field when a ferrous object (ship/submarine) slightly alters it, causing it to detonate... did you get confused with ''Limpet Mines''? Those are explosives that are attached to a hull with magnets, a very different thing.
Wow, I just found your channel, and I'm astonished how deep you dive into the subject and how utterly fascinating it is to see the tiny tidbits that make up history. Great work!
The way that Zimmerit and similar textured substances can disrupt thermal signatures reminds me of how the Ho 229 sort of accidentally became the first "stealth aircraft" because its shape, makeup and wood-mixed paste coating turned out to have effective anti-radar properties. Of course the Germans didn't know that at the time, Kraut Space Magic just happens by accident sometimes.
By the end of the war they was magnetic tank detectors combined with seismic detectors as well. My grandfather operated one in the 50s in the US army on the Czech border area I think.
Ruffles. I like engineering and science, and find it pretty cool that ruffle style were used on tanks. Also, isn't degaussing also used on old CRT monitors?
@@thatguyalex2835 Yeap, still had one not too long ago, had a degauss, had to fix a few of those and the degauss thing is really just a powered wire that runs in a loop around the screen, pretty much the same as the one for boats, just at a much lower size and power. The degauss circuit ran every time the screen turned on, and you could do it manually, made it hella wobbly while the degauss was running.
@@GashimahironChl I pressed the degauss on an old CRT like 10 years ago, and it did wobble like crazy. Sadly, I was born months before the new millennium, so I didn't get to experience that much CRT, except in the 2000s on my parents old 1998 PC that they never used since like 2003. I took apart the PC in 2012, since they were gonna send it off to recycling that year. I played jumpstart games in 2004-2008, so I had some cool nostalgic memories from that HP Pavilion 6830 series tower PC. :) Sadly, technology isn't growing as fast nowadays (2010s/20s tech stagnation, and end of Moore's law by 2025) so it is hard for me to find nostalgia from devices less than say 5-10 years old.
That stuff is all myth. The coating never did function as an anti-radar coating. The metal frame and engine reflected radar just fine. A lot of that stuff seems to have come from Horton after the war to blow up his own importance. His coating was literally white paint and ashes and other crap laying around..if I remember correctly, he was basically just trying to improvise black paint.
I notice that the tank that says "Davy Jones" on the side appears to have 1"x12" boards on the side of the body and some on the side of the tread assembly. I can see that as being very effective against magnetic mines, but would just make flamethrowers more effective.
Hold on, you're fundamentally mixing a lot of concepts up here. De-Gaussing ships was done to reduce their magnetic field strength as early magnetic mines worked by detecting the magnetic field (later mines worked by sensing changes to the local magnetic field, so this technique didn't work). The anti-tank mine that you talked about was a magnetically adhered device, which means that it used magnets to attach to the tanks surface. De-Gaussing does not stop a magnetic from sticking to ferrous metals!
Wow, I have seen that pattern but never knew what it actually was. I assumed it was like the beads of hard facing weld that are applied to excavator buckets.
thanks so much for showing off odysee. I also moved my channel there but felt disheartened by how small it was compared to yt and felt like my reach would be much lower. Thanks for helping it grow!
The ridges make me think of acoustic tile, which makes me wonder if a modern version of the process with different materials could be used to help deaden radar or laser rangefinding.
This could be a really cool potential collaboration opportunity to work with one of the sciency/chemistry channels on youtube to try to recreate the stuff and test some of the recorded properties like the curing time, etc.
I always wondered what that stuff was. Just thought it must’ve been for a non-slip surface or ease of manufacturing. Thank you for sharing the video post and best of luck 🍀👍🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Another explanation might be just plain old boot traction... steel plate armor is slippery, especially when wet. This material provided traction underfoot for scrambling tank crews & troops transport.
It certainly would provide additional traction but according to the information we have it was to prevent magnetic mines from sticking as I discuss in the video
Thanks for this interest and informative discussion, particularly the formulation. I can hardly count the number of times I have read an otherwise reliable source describing Zimmerit as a type of concrete. Evidently, it was more akin to Plastic Wood.
Given the threat level relative to the German response, I would say there is a distinct possibility that the specter of magnetic mines everywhere, requiring a huge response may have been a mere intel op against the Nazis, and possibly from internal actors whom were secretly anti-Nazi. An excellent way to slow tank production.
@@vaelophisnyx9873 show me where I gave a shit about female soldiers being in a game? The entire game is a farce, not just that. I’m all for inclusion in multiplayer games. Just sad to see how far into fantasy one of my favourite series has fallen. Way to jump to ALL of the conclusions though my bud, you must be fun at parties.
Seems more likely that it was intended to be insulation, and perhaps an attempt to reduce their sound signature at the same time. Heck, even being outside the tank, it would probably keep the inside from ringing like a bell on non-penetrating hits. Attempting to put insulation on the inside of an already cramped tank would likely be met with resistance, but insulation would be a very important feature to keep your tankers in good shape during the anticipated campaign across frozen Russia.
Ruffles sound like a good make of crisps..Great video mate on zimmerit coating..Never knew it took so long to dry and why some might fall off in chunks,(which did make the tank look mean)..Also interesting what you said about why the Germans stopped using it..Thanks again..All the best from the U.K and enjoy your crisps.!👍
The magnet "anti-ship' mines that you showed -reacted to the presence of a magnetic field. Not like the limpet mines that were magnetically attached to the hull.- degaussing nullified the field.
the myth of the Germans not producing enough.... lol its good that the US attacked after the Germans losing millions of soldiers and mountains of equipment on the east front.
I have no knowledge of how magnetic mines were used. First I assumed they would be concealed under ground like most traditional mines are but triggered by the magnetic signature rather then pressure triggered. However the Zimmerit seems to have also been covering the tower and topside of the tanks as far as I could see. So would that be to reduce the magnetic signature even if mines are placed under ground or were the application of these mines a bit different from traditional tank mines? Think there was a picture of what I believe was the allies testing Zimmerit and the mine was being placed/held at the side of the tank?
deployed via infantry, sneaking up behind a tank. You pop it on the side carefully, and run as fast as you can since the crew absolutely heard that, while unwinding your detonator wire coil.
Far as I know, the Allies never used magnetic mines against tanks. They just used sachel charges and threw them up on the engine deck, and hoped for the best. I think the idea was Zimmerit would provide enough spacing that the magnets would not stick to any sloped surface like turret or hull sides.
The British also had “sticky bombs” covered with a sticky glue that would stick to the side of a tank, and, according to the Wikipedia page about them, they accounted for six German tanks in North Africa.
The Allies did use magnetic mines. the hawkins mine was a small magnetic mine, but realistically it would be placed on the suspension or tracks to demobilize the tank. you also had the British No.74 sticky (anti-tank) grenade which used glue and which was quickly taken out of service due to many accidents with them.
If anything, Zimmerit is just plain cool-looking. I’m sure some German thought that it’d make the tanks look better in the history books. And it did! Unfortunately for that supposed German though, “the glorious Third Reich” wasn’t really remembered for its victory in WW2 at the end of the day.
A couple of notes about the science: Naval magnetic mines used the change in magnetic field caused by a steel ship moving through the Earth’s magnetic field to trigger the mine’s explosion. Typically, the mine would be on the sea bed in shallow water, like an estuary, and would explode when a ship passed over it. (Thunderfoot made a video about them a few years ago). Degaussing prevented the ship from triggering this type of magnetic mine. The only type of mines that used magnetism to stick to a ship were the small limpet mines with clockwork timers, used in sabotage, for instance in the “Cockleshell heroes” commando raid on German ships moored in a harbour in western France. Degaussing would not prevent this type of mine from sticking to a ship. Zimmerit was essentially a type of textured paint, and almost all paint uses a solvent (sometimes water, sometimes an organic solvent) to make it fluid. Paint needs to be fluid so it can be applied. The only exception I can think of is powder coating, which is a different technique altogether. So Zimmerit didn’t need the solvent for transport, it needed it so it could be applied to the tank.
While Zimmerite was to help fight against magnetic explosives, it was found that no ally nation put even a single thought into magnetic explosives so this ended up being a waste of resources and was abandoned after a while
*Thank you for the info.* I believed that the ridges were hard facing welded by hand. I was thinking that it would be a hell of a lot of work to hard-faced an entire tank.
Tbh I really like the zimmerit. The idea behind it was really sound and smart (why didn't the allies use magnetic mines ?) the solution they found was also very cheap and easy to make. althought it wasn't very useful in its intended purpose it had some other non negligeable applications. And it looked really cool !
The tank at 5:58 has "captured on August 13, 1944" in Russian - it is not clear to me whether this is painted on the tank itself or merely marked on the photo.
HUGE respect to the channel, for actively encouraging his viewers onto Odysee. All the other YT channels, who SAY they oppose YT censorship... but then fail to encourage their audience OFF youtube, and onto YT;s competitors, are complete hypocrites, who have been bought off by Adsense $$$. Nice to see someone who isn't just all talk, and puts his money where his mouth is. Any RUclipsr who ISN'T actively encouraging their audience off YT, is choosing to support YT censorship... even if they SAY they oppose it, make videos complaining about it, etc. (and yes, I subbed on Odysee, where I'll watch this channel from now on, and encourage others to do the same. Yes, Odysee can be clunky- But that's the price of GENUINELY opposing YT censorship... as opposed to just WHINING about it, while we continue to stuff cash into YT's pockets and strengthen their monopoly, by refusing to watch videos elsewhere...)
Fun fact: no it was not. What was tested on u-boats was Alberich, a rubber coating against ASDIC detection. They also tested a coating for the snorkelhead and conning tower against RADAR. But they never tested Zimmerit on u-boats, because there was absolute no use for it on a u-boat, there werent navy seals swimming in the atlantic, trying to stick explosives with magnets to the hull of a u-boat. And magnetic influence mines dont care about the Zimmerit, they react only to the magnetic field wich the Zimmerit doesnt change
Likely an optic , radar and heat concealment measure applied from observation...NOT A USELESS TREATMENT....IT ALSO AFFORDED SOME CAMOUFLAGE ABILITY ... and proximity fused shells would have a lesser magnetic signal...thus efficacy was reduced ..a paper mache overcoat with stealth advantages....
It's my understanding that it also greatly increased the weight of the tank thereby adding an incredible overtaxing of the already barely adequate transmission. You're basically adding about an inch of concrete over the entire surface.
I wonder how effective it would be again early HEAT rounds. Preventing direct contact with the steel using something that is quite heat resistant should have helped slightly, especially if hit at an angle.
HEAT projectiles don‘t actually use heat to defeat armor, but the focused copper beam formed from the lining on the shaped charge which is propelled through the armor by the force of the explosion. The greater standoff caused by the zimmerit would only have helped against that if it was much thicker, causing a premature explosion much like modern cage armor.
@@GhostRider659 they actually do, the energy, including heat energy contributes to the penetration, which is why substances with a very high melting point and low conductivity like quartz are used in composite armor. Sure its not going to provide massive amounts of protection, but a small amount of spaced armor on a sloped surface can be the difference between a dead crew member and a slight injury. Point being I'd rather have it than not have it, and with the amount of heat rounds used on tanks during ww2 its very likely it contributed to saving some tanks during the war
@@antimatter4733 You're very right. We also have to consider that none of the allied commanders (after they murdered Patton) would have wanted such a thing. It would have basically made tanks invincible to everything but air power & they were planning on some protracted wars against people who tended to not have a lot of that. Most people don't want to hear that one of the main reasons for these wars we fight is killing the flower of a country's youth, though. They want to believe that sociopaths really care about them, deep down.
@@gratefulguy4130 well the main reason is actually to fund the military industrial complex. No reason to spend trillions on weapons if you're not fighting any wars
Maybe it wasn't actually meant to be used against mines after all 🤣 If it protected against a flamethrower, maybe it was some form of insulation against hot and cold weather. If the the ammunition gets too hot or cold, it changes the ballistics due to the powder burn rate changing. High temperature increases the burn rate, increasing muzzle velocity and thereby the gun recoil while cold temperature leads to slower burn rate, lower muzzle velocity and increases the likelyhood of backblast from unburned powder when the breech opens. Steel on its own obviously can get hot or cold very fast. Well, I guess they wouldn't put Zimmerit on sideskirts then, if that was actually the case 😋
It's great how Zimmerit was simultaneously an entirely pointless idea and accidentally genius. Despite both of those things it probably had minimal impact in actual battle. It is perhaps the most German invention of all time.
It's pretty obvious it was anti-heat. Most likely it would have avoided too many casualties for us to want to use it (casualties are an "important" part of the wars we fight from the perspective of those who start them). If that sounds paranoid to you, remember most anti-tank munitions of the time relied on creating a plasma channel with a shaped explosion to melt it's way into armor. If you've got a self-healing (under heat) thick coating on your tank, it will probably make it far more resistant against things like RPG's.
@@gratefulguy4130 okay, "this technology was abandoned because nations wanted their tank crews to die more to justify wars they were already in" is a conspiracy theory I didn't think I'd see
@@gratefulguy4130 I can't emphasize enough that the "paranoid" part of your argument is not "but is it mechanically possible for this to have offered protection" it is the "actually the military is trying to maximize its own casualties for nefarious reasons"
@@johnalogue9832 These people don't listen to the videos they watch do they christ. Zimmerit wouldn't do shit against a properly impacted shape charge, that was neither its design need nor its actual function. At best it stopped a tank from cooking from being molotov'd, and was intended to stop a magnetic mine from being placed on the side of the hull (which never actually came into use). The idea that this simple pseudo-ceramic was "self healing" is funny as hell to me as well.
The most ironic thing is that by the time zimmerit was being applied to tanks, Germany had already started adopting multiple other infantry anti-tank solutions, which even included copying the bazooka (panzerschreck), or just straight up using captured soviet AT rifles. By the time they were applying this paste, they had effectively thrown the thing it was supposed to counter into the bin.
![[Tanks 101] Armor Protection 1920-1980 - Features and Characteristics](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/f0IbZGfTgUM/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Tanks 101] Armor Protection 1920-1980 - Features and Characteristics](/img/tr.png)
I've seen quite a few comments regarding the sea mines portion of the video. Obviously as this was specifically on Zimmerit I only very briefly touched on that topic so I didn't go into any full detail on the way that it functions. I was just comparing a similar technology to show that Zimmerit was not alone in it's general purpose. I'll likely cover sea mines in the future since clearly it's a topic with similar amounts of interest.
Edit: I was able to remove the section of the video containing the error so it won't confuse anyone while hopefully still getting my point across about the similarities of the two concepts.
We can all agree on this Zimmerit coating looks very cool 😎
Dont worry,my joke will help ur video
@@TheNewOrder-DaysOfConflict k
02:13 ah, the legendary "Haph Holladong".
Could you do a video on the M1 Thumper, I believe it was a Abrams armed with a 140mm Smooth Bore
The main thing is that the crews believed they were safer with Zimmerit, it's an important thing when you charge into battle
Placebo Effect...
I feel so much safer knowing that in the event of a rollover, the top of my tank won't detonate the a mine
The US Army did the same thing with the same effects 20 years ago with their Kevlar vests….the troops thought they were bullet proof and had extra confidence while wearing them……unfortunately though, years later when we invaded Afghanistan we discovered that an Ak-47 round (7.62) would go right through them like they were made of tissue. The military had known the vests were ineffective against small arms fire from day one and the only thing they stopped was flak, shrapnel and bayonets. Thankfully the Army had developed an alloy plate insert for the vests that would stop 7.62 rounds that they quickly issued out.
@@Dj.MODÆO thats fucked up
@@Dj.MODÆO If that would be true, US soldiers must be very very dumb.
I was '99 in the german army and in KFOR, we knew exactly that the kevlar vest would stop max a 9mm and the Bristol vest (Kevlar with ceramic plates) was rated to stop 3 7.62mm NATO hits (when hit on one of the ceramic plates). In Kosovo i didnt had contact with the US Army, they were in a differnt sector than i, but im pretty pretty sure they already had similar vest to the Bristol, long befor Germany bought theirs from the UK for KFOR.
And no, the kevlar vest did not stop bayonets or knifes.
The Germans were such good engineers they solved issues they didn't even mean to solve
Dont forget they sped ran 1000 year Reich just in 12 years.
hliter was trying to do the speed run of the new game sadly there was a mind blowing bug
JA
@@jarskil8862 We know about "Internet years"; those 1000 years were "Third Reich years"! 🤣
"are"
Interesting that these tanks applied with zimmerit were supposed to be anti magnetic but had properties that enabled them to resist heating up and gave them additional concealment. It's a very situational appliance but it is interesting that concealment and resistance to heat were the benefits of it. If dragons were alive, zimmerit would have been the perfect application lol
Dragons would likely just pick tanks up and drop them, like the raprors do with turrles or eggs. Also, in the world where hostile dragons exist, it's unlikely people would be able to advance the technology to the modern age due to a constant struggle for survival.
@@MaycroftCholmsky bruh, he just made a little joke and then you come in all like “WELL ACKTUALLY”
Chill
@@MaycroftCholmsky WW2 was a constant struggle for survival too and technology advanced as quick as never before. Desperation makes creative!
As far as WWII, dragons were a problem.. They breathed fire... They were usually tanks hauling petrol trailers and were terrifying
@@MaycroftCholmsky I doubt dragons would be able to lift tanks, let alone get past AA fire.
German Engineers: "So, the armor works great, right?"
Crew: "Sure! Helps with concealment, and against burning to death! Can it come in skull-pattern?"
Engineer: "No, does it work against magnetic mines?"
Crew: "Um... maybe? Our enemy doesn't use those."
@The fastest milkman in the West there are very rarely used on what i understand also magnetic mines/grenades are considered costly to manufactured asides the introduction of much better anti tank weapons like bazookas and piat (projector infantry anti tank) were more common to be used and much safer than anti tank grenades (although it's still used up today like molotov -homemade incendiary bottle grenade-)
@The fastest milkman in the West The Brits used the Hawkins grenade but it really wasn't that useful, you'd be lucky if you managed to blow off a track. Zimmerit or not there is no way a Hawkins can hurt a fucking Tiger.
Who is the fastest milkman in the west? His profile leads to a page saying he was deleted because he violated guidelines
@@ridleyhatessamuscgtfbjjh4010what are you talking about
@@ridleyhatessamuscgtfbjjh4010I am curious as well
Soviets: “I see! The Zimmerman Paste is meant to be used to prevent fire attacks on it!”
Germans: It’s anti magnetic mine armor!
Soviets: “No that’s stupid, who would waste time on making something that we rarely use?”
Germans: *Screams in German*
It's das Zimmerit! Run, you fool!
**screaming in das German**
Its screaming AUF deutsch
@@matthiwi6901 ... "we never surrender!" auf Deutsch: "wir kapitulieren niermals!" ........ and now you have to do 50 pushup's fot forgetting the capital "D" in Deutsch ! ;-)
@@tubab72 now you have to be invaded for not being german. You only capitalize nouns, official titles or respectful adresses. In our case, "deutsch" is an adjective, not to be capitalized, while a nominalized adjective like "im Deutschen" which means in the german language, which are capitalized.
Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache.
@@matthiwi6901 ... I was pretty sure that changed. Will have to look it up now. As far as the invasion goes ... you Germans have been doing that every summer for as long as i can remember. Hope to see you again on a Dutch beach this summer and thanks for this entertaining conversation.
The whole "Defending against your own weapons" thing is common in military circles and was discovered to still be a problem after the fall of the Soviet Union when a lot of Western aircraft were tested against their likely Soviet opponents and it was found to still have influenced both sides.
Reminds me of Russia's "dirty flares" today.
@@t65bx25 radioactive?
like how CNN uses misinformation to counter Fox's misinformation which Fox uses to counter CNN's misinformation
@@nmarbletoe8210 that's blatant misinformation bro you're just baiting the fact checkers
@@jimbothegymbro7086 mismisinforception
Very thoughtful of the Germans; apply Zimmerit to your tanks so when the Soviets capture them they're immune to your own magnetic anti-tank mines. Because nobody else used them.
being german.. they always have second plan.. whenever soviet capture their tank the transmission is already broken and thus cant be used..
They probably thought the soviets also used them
The Russians didn’t - the British did use magnetically attached antitank mines.
Look up the Hawkins Grenade.
@@Ruzaraneh not to mention that they only ran well on gasoline (petrol), which was in short supply on the eastern front, when the 'diesel' T34 ran on basically anything that burned in a pinch
Lmao come get y’all L
The most useful part of Zimmerit coating was that it looks cool.
IRL cosmetic tank skin DLC
Yeah, wanted to write the same :D
And it's got a cool name!
I've never seen it till today and I'm a huge WW2 History buff.
Sorry to ruin 60
Others have mentioned that "magnetic sea mines" generally refer to mines with magnetic triggers, but I'd like to point out that specifically degaussing was a countermeasure for magnetic triggers and not magnetic attaching limpet mines. Magnetic triggers were designed to detect magnetic field disturbances caused by ships. Ships would cause these disturbances because they're giant loops and plates of magnetic material constantly moving through a magnetic field. Degaussing wouldn't affect the ability of magnetic attachment to a hull, because it doesn't change the ferric nature of the metals used in the ship. Otherwise, thanks for another interesting and informative video
correct! once he started in on his phony description of how magnetic sea mines operated... that ended it for me... just more clickbait...
@@GrayLensman51 yeah same
thaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks for noticing
Yes. Degaussing coils are to minimize magnetic detection, not to minimize magnetic attraction. In addition to mines that triggered on a disturbance of the magnetic field, torpedoes, of all combatants, also employed magnetic triggers. They ALL had teething problems, and would often fail to detonate, early in the war. The infamous US MK14, also had this problem, tacked on to already extensive list of issues. They were all resolved in the end, but it took a while, and is no conciliation, if your sub got sunk due to this weapons failure.
@@GrayLensman51 That's a bit much. Honestly I only learned how magnetic sea mines worked after taking a college course specifically about designing and operating naval weapons and weapons systems. ConeOfArc does a good job, he points out sources, when sources conflict, and when he speculates. We all have gaps in our knowledge and that's fine, we learn and we use what we learned going forward.
They did it knowing decades later expensive scale plastic model kits of the tanks would be marketed and the coating would be sold separately
Germans used magnetic anti tank mines and assumed everybody else did as well.
too much Pervitin
It would have made perfect sense for the Soviets, with their abundance of green infantry ("Tank On - Apply Directly to Tank"), but it was a stupid idea for the Germans and in any case the Soviets preferred Molotovs, which Zimmerit did nothing against.
@Hans Blitzkrieg Pervitin? That was produced till 1988.
In '41 it was changed in the Wehrmacht from free to only give on the order of a doctor, after the war it you could buy it free like aspirin again.
@@jasoncarswell7458 it was explicitly stated in the video you seemingly did not watch, that it actually did perform not terribly against fire so...
@@vaelophisnyx9873 " it actually did perform not terribly against fire so"
I'm sorry, can you translate that into English for me? I don't speak Short Bus.
Funny that the magnetic defense part was underwhelming, but then on accident it's fire and heat retardant enough to prevent a magazine detonation . And a little camo thrown in
Are you suggesting the Germans would just lie about what their stuff did? Who would do such a thing?
@@stefanmuc2k Certainly not the entire history of man kind! And definitely not the reason the phrase “snake oil salesman” was coined
magnetic mines, sea mines did not "stick" to the ships. rather the mines used a magnetic triggered firing system. The magnetic trigger sensed the nearby passing of an iron ship. the mines were NOT magnetically attracted to the ship.
Exactly! Naval mines used the effect of magnetism for exactly the opposite reason, so the ship need not touch the mine to detonate it as well as making it more likely that the mine will explode under the ship instead of against the side, doing more damage.
Exactly
mhmm... this channel kinda sucks. =/
This video wasn't specifically on how sea mines work I was just using it as a lead in to Zimmerit since degaussing is a somewhat related technology.
Ha, when I was a kid I thought magnetic mines would pop out of the ground, stick to the tank, and explode! 😄
After WWII, a Wehrmacht officer said: Our tanks could take out any ten Shermans!
But there was always an eleventh Sherman ...
That was the real engineering problem for the Germans.
The US doesn't solve their problems. They overwhelm them
@@bertjanspeedfight2 The russians also overwhelm them
@@schnelliwin2207 the Russians just trow man over the problem. The US materials
It wasn't an engineering problem, it was a logistical problem.... being hopelessly outnumbered and under-supplied compared to a British Empire that was able to source raw materials from all over the globe, together with an American partner that could manufacture whatever was needed without any risk of the war interfering with production.
Having more of everything is the best strategy to win....😀
Weirdly only the Germans had widely used magnetic anti tank grenades.
Not according to CoD games.
I think the British tried it, decided normal anti tank grenades were fine and used them much less,
Cod games aren't a good source
Well, German expected the Allies to capture it and use it.
thats not the point.. the point is being able to by past your own defenses if you wanna you know fight back not just defended or take back choke points..
I think a part that is heavily overlooked is that the very fact that the germans had something that would make magnetic mines less effective would deter the allied forces from using them in the first place.
Yeah, I notice that a lot in retroactive war coverage. There's a lot members on both sides didn't do simply because the other already knew how to counter it or an ally already had it covered, but people just casually dismiss it as "wasted effort lel".
Bonus fact, the British and USA both had excellent long range flamethrowers by the same point in the war that zimmerit coating was employed. Regardless if they'd documented knowledge of it's capabilities as a flame retardant or not, it probably kept more than a few Nazi tank crews wreaking havoc longer than they could've otherwise.
Wouldn’t it also be beneficial to have them put effort into mass producing tank mines only for them to be ineffective and useless?
That sounds like a good deception too
@Lawofimprobability This is not correct, both official accounts and anecdotal evidence suggest otherwise. The Allies used chaff at Operation Gomorrah 1943, for example. My grandpa also used to collect chaff from the fields for christmas tree decoration as a child.
Wouldn’t that idea be disrupted by the fact that at least some of the allies (like the Soviets) had no idea what it did?
Polished chrome would have gotten the tank crews more chicks.
I wonder if any of the ingredients in the mixture experience any chemical change when exposed to fire? If the Soviets took their samples from a burned out tank rather than a captured one that could explain differences.
Well, the PVA plastic/glue and the wood at 1:16 are definitely changing after a toast… On the other hand it’s blowtorch-dried for one hour at production so I guess extra toasting isn’t going to do much?
@@a2e5 Hmm, there is a big difference between an intentionally used blowtorch and a tank’s own ammunition supply blowing up.
@@jooot_6850 Yeah, it would be hotter and a far more sustained heat. The wood would turn to carbon and who knows what other chemical changes would take place. It could definitely be enough to give false positives under a 1940s microscope. I doubt they would have othered testing its composition more than once or twice.
Or the fact that the soviets lied about literally everything as a matter of practice. Even when they didn't "have to".
@@jooot_6850 it kept the ammo from blowing most times. Probably why we like to say, "Oh, nevermind all that."..
Very interesting! I always thought that the texture of the tanks was part of the casting itself, thanks for the explanation.
1:46 pretty sure magnetic naval mines don't actually stick to the ships, they just use magnetism to detect the presence of the ship nearby and then detonate
You need to watch more Gilligan's Island
There are some cartoons which use this hilarious misconception.
Magnetic detonators are tricky things. You gotta account for variations in the earth’s magnetic field or they could be too sensitive or not sensitive enough. The change in field as a mass of metal passed by would fire the detonator and set off the explosive.
Sea mines and torpedoes were designed to go off below a ship and do nasty things with a cavitation bubble.
there are limped mines that attach to the hull via magnets, but those are usually deployed by divers
Depends on exactly what kind of mine you're talking about.
The magnetically triggered mines that degaussing cables helped protect the ship from were not much of a thing in land warfare. The purpose of degaussing the ship is to reduce or eliminate the distortion in earths magnetic field caused by the passage of a huge mass of ferrous metal. The mine frequently is a bottom mine, and when it detects a sudden change in Earth's magnetic field, it explodes.
There were magnetic limpet mines developed about the same time as their land based equivalents, and degaussing the ship has no effect on them. They'll stick just fine. The Naval version had to be placed on the target exactly like the land based version. For a ship, the proper defense against these is various nets, patrols of small boats, lookouts and a couple of cases of hand grenades.
I haven't watched your vids in a while, but honestly seeing the new intro for cursed by design just brought a glimmer of unexplainable happiness. It looks very nice, keep at it =)
This is the kind of information I didn't know I was interested in knowing. And a beautiful voice and soul that I enjoy the presence of. You are such a beautiful person.
The heat resistance makes sense if you compare the suggested composition of zimmerit to the insulating blocks used in a kiln or a forge. Quartz is a crystalline silica and silica is a basic insulating mineral. So they kinda "invented" the heat tiles like they use on space craft for re-entry.
only the space shuttle and now the Starship prototypes use heat insulating tiles. All other crafts use ablatives which boils off taking away the heat from the craft itself and is the same principle that prevents liquid water from going higher then it's boiling temperature.
Plural of "craft" is "craft". Not "crafts" ffs 🙄
@@philmckenna5709 Language is a human construct that has existed for eons and only a couple thousand years as a written form. The written form itself being codified through dictionaries in the last 200-300 years. Back then words were codified by how they were pronounced at the time. Making distionaries record of spoken languages of the time they were created. Since then spoken language as continued to evolve but mentally challenged and power hungry men have been enforcing 200 year old spelling that don't reflect modern language at all.
The plural of craft can be crafts and there's nothings you can do about it other then commit crimes against humanity so shut your fucking mouth before I go full Alies on you like the fucking natzi that you are.
P.S. natzi is a acceptable version of nazi since it's the short for of "NATionalsoZIalismus". So eat me
@@peter4210 "It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".
@@jbrizzle4725 Oh excuse me, I did not know it was illegal to form a well researched opinions on the nature of spelling. I will try and find a quote too to hide the fact that I can't think. Here it goes:
""faciem durum cacantis habes""
Nice job. I enjoy the chronological presentation of the information, showing the development, deployment and retraction of the technology. Also your thoroughness and articulate delivery. I look forward to keeping an eye out for other videos of yours.
It was applied in 4 different patterns and it's main effect seem to have been for camouflage. 200 tons were shipped to Australia after the war for further testing and the results were the same. No good at anti magnetic but good at breaking up the lines of the tank when in "Undergrowth"
Explains why sometimes concrete was used instead of actual Zimmerit if it had better camouflage capabilities
@@dindrmindr626 The patterns that i know of are the "Square", "Waffle" "Square with Vertical/Horizontal lines" and "Horizontal Lines" if you can give me any details on the others you talked about i greatly appreciate it
@@dindrmindr626 Thanks for that...the zigzag is a really interesting looking one, i shall be trying that pattern out on my next model i'll be making......but it won't be on a Panzer IV
ughh wouldn't paint have been easier to apply if it was just for camo bro?
No, not for coloration but for breaking up the lines of the tank
It’s pretty easy to spot a green square in some bushes
Also heat resistant so burning to death or ammo heating up to much was not a problem
Prolly provided insulation to
I've always wondered what those ridges were for (I thought they were welded on). Thanks for the information.
Germany: we need Zimmerit to protect our tanks from enemy magnetic mines
Allied Nations: BUT YOU ARE THE ONLY NATION USE THE MAGNETIC MINE ON FIELDS,GERMANY
Their idea was there.
Magnetic mines seem like a next step in anti tank weapon development for countries because the mines will always stick and as such much better compared to normal anti tank blasting charges
Problem was that no one bothered developing them for some reason.
Likely believed it was a dead end or thought normal at weapons worked well enough
@@Thekilleroftanks why would you make something more expensive and complicated when you could have a simple mine
@@lunatic_nebula9542 That is the heart of all German Engineering.... Over complicate things. Just look at the G11 if you want another example.
@@GrumpyIan the G11 is actually fairly well-designed and about as simple as it could realistically be to meet the specification requirements. It's just that the requirements were dumb. NATO wanted a rifle that could drastically improve hit probability in combat, decades of testing by the US starting in the 1950s running right through the 1990s achieved very little. They tried putting two bullets in one cartridge, then three bullets, then they tried flechette rifles and caseless ammunition, and H&K were eventually roped in in the 1980s to make a 3-round-hyperburst weapon to fulfill the US' needs and replace the G3 for the Bundeswehr. Needless to say the clockwork nightmare of a gun was never officially adopted by either nation.
The Russians did something similar with the 2-round hyperburst AN-94, a gun almost as complex with essentially two guns in one fed by chains and pulleys. AN-94 did get adopted by special forces and has allegedly served in combat in limited numbers.
@@lunatic_nebula9542 It can help prevent civilian casualties (at least in theory)
Not that the Germans or the allies were particularly worried about that in WW2 but just in general.
Zimmerit might have been invented as an anti mine layer but probably saw continued service for its camoflauging properties, hence why it was still issued to troops even in the field to apply. There's quite a few images of crew applied paste that was specifically textured in the iconic slatted fashion because it dried matte and hid the tank's flat reflective surface and unlike paint which just colours the plates it also breaks up the harsh lines and faces
I have seen and tested zimmerit first hand at the canadian war museum in ottawa. It does work as intended against magnet and would definitely prevent mines from sticking to the tank.
"If you wanna dislike my videos, do it on Odyssee"
I had always thought that stuff was stick welded hardfacing, I only found out a few years ago that it was just a cement-like paste applied for magnetic mines.
Dude! Your idea is better!
@@insertgoodname4809 I thought so too lol, but I guess it makes sense why they wouldn't do that with how long it would take (the video _did_ said they were using unskilled labor to apply the zimmerit and couldn't wait the full 8 days to dry so they used torches, sounds like stick welding every square inch of the tank might take just a tad longer than that🤣) , and I imagine it would induce a lot of stress in the armor as well, could cause cracking issues...
But if it was done right and stress relieved and all that I imagine it would probably increase the durability by a little bit at least, having a hardened surface would probably completely deflect small hits and mitigate bigger hits vs a standard hardness armor.
Magnetic sea mines utilise changes in the earths magnetic field when a ferrous object (ship/submarine) slightly alters it, causing it to detonate... did you get confused with ''Limpet Mines''? Those are explosives that are attached to a hull with magnets, a very different thing.
Wow, I just found your channel, and I'm astonished how deep you dive into the subject and how utterly fascinating it is to see the tiny tidbits that make up history. Great work!
Thank you … I’ve always wondered how they justified the expense when no-one used magnetic mines.
Just got to this channel, first video I watched, one minute in and shade thrown directly in RUclips's face
The way that Zimmerit and similar textured substances can disrupt thermal signatures reminds me of how the Ho 229 sort of accidentally became the first "stealth aircraft" because its shape, makeup and wood-mixed paste coating turned out to have effective anti-radar properties. Of course the Germans didn't know that at the time, Kraut Space Magic just happens by accident sometimes.
By the end of the war they was magnetic tank detectors combined with seismic detectors as well. My grandfather operated one in the 50s in the US army on the Czech border area I think.
Ruffles. I like engineering and science, and find it pretty cool that ruffle style were used on tanks.
Also, isn't degaussing also used on old CRT monitors?
@@thatguyalex2835 Yeap, still had one not too long ago, had a degauss, had to fix a few of those and the degauss thing is really just a powered wire that runs in a loop around the screen, pretty much the same as the one for boats, just at a much lower size and power.
The degauss circuit ran every time the screen turned on, and you could do it manually, made it hella wobbly while the degauss was running.
@@GashimahironChl I pressed the degauss on an old CRT like 10 years ago, and it did wobble like crazy. Sadly, I was born months before the new millennium, so I didn't get to experience that much CRT, except in the 2000s on my parents old 1998 PC that they never used since like 2003. I took apart the PC in 2012, since they were gonna send it off to recycling that year. I played jumpstart games in 2004-2008, so I had some cool nostalgic memories from that HP Pavilion 6830 series tower PC. :) Sadly, technology isn't growing as fast nowadays (2010s/20s tech stagnation, and end of Moore's law by 2025) so it is hard for me to find nostalgia from devices less than say 5-10 years old.
That stuff is all myth. The coating never did function as an anti-radar coating. The metal frame and engine reflected radar just fine. A lot of that stuff seems to have come from Horton after the war to blow up his own importance. His coating was literally white paint and ashes and other crap laying around..if I remember correctly, he was basically just trying to improvise black paint.
I notice that the tank that says "Davy Jones" on the side appears to have 1"x12" boards on the side of the body and some on the side of the tread assembly. I can see that as being very effective against magnetic mines, but would just make flamethrowers more effective.
Hold on, you're fundamentally mixing a lot of concepts up here.
De-Gaussing ships was done to reduce their magnetic field strength as early magnetic mines worked by detecting the magnetic field (later mines worked by sensing changes to the local magnetic field, so this technique didn't work). The anti-tank mine that you talked about was a magnetically adhered device, which means that it used magnets to attach to the tanks surface. De-Gaussing does not stop a magnetic from sticking to ferrous metals!
This is the first time i see someone suggest a yt alternative in a video. Thank you, please continue with this
Bovington had a gorgeous Jagdpanther with Zimmerit paste, was my favorite tank when i went!
wow , nice lil new intro , cone of arc always making progress as usual . somber and professional content that's why i came for this chanel !
The rough surfaces might slightly reduce the effect of some armour piercing ammunition
Tank crew: ha! Das mine vill not stick on our panzer!
Metal tracks: *Am I a joke to you?*
Wow, I have seen that pattern but never knew what it actually was. I assumed it was like the beads of hard facing weld that are applied to excavator buckets.
thanks so much for showing off odysee. I also moved my channel there but felt disheartened by how small it was compared to yt and felt like my reach would be much lower. Thanks for helping it grow!
The ridges make me think of acoustic tile, which makes me wonder if a modern version of the process with different materials could be used to help deaden radar or laser rangefinding.
This could be a really cool potential collaboration opportunity to work with one of the sciency/chemistry channels on youtube to try to recreate the stuff and test some of the recorded properties like the curing time, etc.
I always wondered what that stuff was. Just thought it must’ve been for a non-slip surface or ease of manufacturing. Thank you for sharing the video post and best of luck 🍀👍🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Another explanation might be just plain old boot traction... steel plate armor is slippery, especially when wet. This material provided traction underfoot for scrambling tank crews & troops transport.
It certainly would provide additional traction but according to the information we have it was to prevent magnetic mines from sticking as I discuss in the video
@@ConeOfArc Very cool... nice vid👍🏻
Now I'm hungry for sauerkraut and onion chips.
all these years i Figured Zimmerit was hard weld to increase protection from anything shot at it. Wow. Great video.
My next dog will be called Zimmerit.
So he can zimmer down?
@@derrickstorm6976 lol
Thanks for this interest and informative discussion, particularly the formulation. I can hardly count the number of times I have read an otherwise reliable source describing Zimmerit as a type of concrete. Evidently, it was more akin to Plastic Wood.
Given the threat level relative to the German response, I would say there is a distinct possibility that the specter of magnetic mines everywhere, requiring a huge response may have been a mere intel op against the Nazis, and possibly from internal actors whom were secretly anti-Nazi. An excellent way to slow tank production.
Very well presented and informative video on a topic I'd not known much about, thank you for the thorough details and explanations :D
I only know zimmerit from BF V and does near the same thing however it prevents anything from sticking rather than only magnetic AT weapons/gadgets.
How historically accurate LMAO 🤣
Does it still prevent attachment of devices if prosthetically enhanced female supersoldiers apply them?
@@fenriders7008 yes it does, I'm afraid dice is sexist and based
@@fenriders7008 Imagine being so weak as to give a shit if women are included in a game, lol
@@vaelophisnyx9873 show me where I gave a shit about female soldiers being in a game? The entire game is a farce, not just that. I’m all for inclusion in multiplayer games. Just sad to see how far into fantasy one of my favourite series has fallen. Way to jump to ALL of the conclusions though my bud, you must be fun at parties.
Those tanks be lookin like a *snacc*
It had a lasting legacy of becoming a time consuming step for guys trying to make their model kits look more authentic.
I bet that’s where a 3D printer would excel.
Thank you for answering a question about why their tanks looked like that.
Seems more likely that it was intended to be insulation, and perhaps an attempt to reduce their sound signature at the same time. Heck, even being outside the tank, it would probably keep the inside from ringing like a bell on non-penetrating hits. Attempting to put insulation on the inside of an already cramped tank would likely be met with resistance, but insulation would be a very important feature to keep your tankers in good shape during the anticipated campaign across frozen Russia.
Ruffles sound like a good make of crisps..Great video mate on zimmerit coating..Never knew it took so long to dry and why some might fall off in chunks,(which did make the tank look mean)..Also interesting what you said about why the Germans stopped using it..Thanks again..All the best from the U.K and enjoy your crisps.!👍
The magnet "anti-ship' mines that you showed -reacted to the presence of a magnetic field. Not like the limpet mines that were magnetically attached to the hull.- degaussing nullified the field.
This makes me want to scream the lyrics of "Wo alle straßen enden"
Don't you just love it when Hanz's higher ups give their armoured vehicles a cool aesthetic skin instead of making more armoured vehicles
the myth of the Germans not producing enough.... lol its good that the US attacked after the Germans losing millions of soldiers and mountains of equipment on the east front.
Fascinating. I've noticed the ripples before, but never put much thought into what they were. Thanks.
I thought those ridged were made to help shred the enemies' incoming shots.
Keep it up. Very interesting, small or odd details often lead to breakthrough on unrelated projects.
I have no knowledge of how magnetic mines were used. First I assumed they would be concealed under ground like most traditional mines are but triggered by the magnetic signature rather then pressure triggered. However the Zimmerit seems to have also been covering the tower and topside of the tanks as far as I could see. So would that be to reduce the magnetic signature even if mines are placed under ground or were the application of these mines a bit different from traditional tank mines? Think there was a picture of what I believe was the allies testing Zimmerit and the mine was being placed/held at the side of the tank?
deployed via infantry, sneaking up behind a tank. You pop it on the side carefully, and run as fast as you can since the crew absolutely heard that, while unwinding your detonator wire coil.
As soon as you gave your alternative site because Utube might censure you I subscribed. You are my type of person.
Far as I know, the Allies never used magnetic mines against tanks. They just used sachel charges and threw them up on the engine deck, and hoped for the best. I think the idea was Zimmerit would provide enough spacing that the magnets would not stick to any sloped surface like turret or hull sides.
The British also had “sticky bombs” covered with a sticky glue that would stick to the side of a tank, and, according to the Wikipedia page about them, they accounted for six German tanks in North Africa.
The Allies did use magnetic mines. the hawkins mine was a small magnetic mine, but realistically it would be placed on the suspension or tracks to demobilize the tank. you also had the British No.74 sticky (anti-tank) grenade which used glue and which was quickly taken out of service due to many accidents with them.
@@frankpolly I searched now for quite a while, but even the field manual of the Hawkins mine didnt even mention magnets at all
i had originally thought that the design was to mess with the penetration of enemy shells
If anything, Zimmerit is just plain cool-looking. I’m sure some German thought that it’d make the tanks look better in the history books. And it did! Unfortunately for that supposed German though, “the glorious Third Reich” wasn’t really remembered for its victory in WW2 at the end of the day.
A couple of notes about the science:
Naval magnetic mines used the change in magnetic field caused by a steel ship moving through the Earth’s magnetic field to trigger the mine’s explosion. Typically, the mine would be on the sea bed in shallow water, like an estuary, and would explode when a ship passed over it. (Thunderfoot made a video about them a few years ago). Degaussing prevented the ship from triggering this type of magnetic mine.
The only type of mines that used magnetism to stick to a ship were the small limpet mines with clockwork timers, used in sabotage, for instance in the “Cockleshell heroes” commando raid on German ships moored in a harbour in western France. Degaussing would not prevent this type of mine from sticking to a ship.
Zimmerit was essentially a type of textured paint, and almost all paint uses a solvent (sometimes water, sometimes an organic solvent) to make it fluid. Paint needs to be fluid so it can be applied. The only exception I can think of is powder coating, which is a different technique altogether. So Zimmerit didn’t need the solvent for transport, it needed it so it could be applied to the tank.
While Zimmerite was to help fight against magnetic explosives, it was found that no ally nation put even a single thought into magnetic explosives so this ended up being a waste of resources and was abandoned after a while
heres a video that covers this topic in more detail and clears up some of your misconceptions ruclips.net/video/fy9Kx7yW_a8/видео.html
@@U6kCtBuN Thanks. That was very informative.
Great intro, I really laughed! Now I just have to pester Ruffles into a sauerkraut flavor.
Now on i will start eating tiger tanks
*Thank you for the info.*
I believed that the ridges were hard facing welded by hand.
I was thinking that it would be a hell of a lot of work to hard-faced an entire tank.
Tbh I really like the zimmerit.
The idea behind it was really sound and smart (why didn't the allies use magnetic mines ?)
the solution they found was also very cheap and easy to make.
althought it wasn't very useful in its intended purpose it had some other non negligeable applications.
And it looked really cool !
Cost, weight, deployment time, supply logistics for bulky mag-mines, etc
ultimately, it turns out a good pressure triggered AT mine worked fine.
The Germans used ruffles when the chips were down but victory was not in the bag.
Didn't the germans use the most magnetic mines?
To protect from any German civil wars. Because of course no one using mustache man's mega tanks will want to rebel.
Because I was making a joke and you took offence to it.
@Hans Blitzkrieg Ye it did
The tank at 5:58 has "captured on August 13, 1944" in Russian - it is not clear to me whether this is painted on the tank itself or merely marked on the photo.
HANZ PUTZ THE POTATO CHIPS ON ZE TIGER ZE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!
JAAA
JA HANS JA
Dude keep up the good work man I love these videos
HUGE respect to the channel, for actively encouraging his viewers onto Odysee. All the other YT channels, who SAY they oppose YT censorship... but then fail to encourage their audience OFF youtube, and onto YT;s competitors, are complete hypocrites, who have been bought off by Adsense $$$. Nice to see someone who isn't just all talk, and puts his money where his mouth is.
Any RUclipsr who ISN'T actively encouraging their audience off YT, is choosing to support YT censorship... even if they SAY they oppose it, make videos complaining about it, etc.
(and yes, I subbed on Odysee, where I'll watch this channel from now on, and encourage others to do the same. Yes, Odysee can be clunky- But that's the price of GENUINELY opposing YT censorship... as opposed to just WHINING about it, while we continue to stuff cash into YT's pockets and strengthen their monopoly, by refusing to watch videos elsewhere...)
Well, at least he has a good sponsor - the ad ahead of the video for the sports bras were pretty good viewing.
They did it just to make life difficult for future generations of model makers. 😀
A nicely done video.
Great topic on something I knew little about..
fun fact: Zimmerit was also tested on U-Boots but regmans decided that reduction in speed was too great to use it.
Fun fact: no it was not.
What was tested on u-boats was Alberich, a rubber coating against ASDIC detection.
They also tested a coating for the snorkelhead and conning tower against RADAR.
But they never tested Zimmerit on u-boats, because there was absolute no use for it on a u-boat, there werent navy seals swimming in the atlantic, trying to stick explosives with magnets to the hull of a u-boat.
And magnetic influence mines dont care about the Zimmerit, they react only to the magnetic field wich the Zimmerit doesnt change
@@wolf310ii ,on that note,did the British never use Limpit mines on U-boats at any point?
,,I don't give a Zhit if this pazta worked or not, It paied my Chalet in Zwissland.''
See you !
The Sales manager of Zimmer Werke 1933-1945.
The real question is, would Zimmerit have extended the lifespan or durability of Pykrete?
Would it have been been possible to clad what is essentially a modified iceberg with zimmerit?
Likely an optic , radar and heat concealment measure applied from observation...NOT A USELESS TREATMENT....IT ALSO AFFORDED SOME CAMOUFLAGE ABILITY ... and proximity fused shells would have a lesser magnetic signal...thus efficacy was reduced ..a paper mache overcoat with stealth advantages....
A form of insulation, it gets hot in the tank. It could also be a way of clearing up radio noise by eliminating feedback.
That Sherman at the end with the spike exterior is straight out of Mad Max.
It's my understanding that it also greatly increased the weight of the tank thereby adding an incredible overtaxing of the already barely adequate transmission. You're basically adding about an inch of concrete over the entire surface.
It was actually a clever plan to annoy future AFV modellers.
I wonder how effective it would be again early HEAT rounds. Preventing direct contact with the steel using something that is quite heat resistant should have helped slightly, especially if hit at an angle.
HEAT projectiles don‘t actually use heat to defeat armor, but the focused copper beam formed from the lining on the shaped charge which is propelled through the armor by the force of the explosion. The greater standoff caused by the zimmerit would only have helped against that if it was much thicker, causing a premature explosion much like modern cage armor.
@@GhostRider659 they actually do, the energy, including heat energy contributes to the penetration, which is why substances with a very high melting point and low conductivity like quartz are used in composite armor. Sure its not going to provide massive amounts of protection, but a small amount of spaced armor on a sloped surface can be the difference between a dead crew member and a slight injury. Point being I'd rather have it than not have it, and with the amount of heat rounds used on tanks during ww2 its very likely it contributed to saving some tanks during the war
It probably helped keep a plasma channel from forming, yes. Most likely it's true purpose.
@@antimatter4733 You're very right. We also have to consider that none of the allied commanders (after they murdered Patton) would have wanted such a thing. It would have basically made tanks invincible to everything but air power & they were planning on some protracted wars against people who tended to not have a lot of that.
Most people don't want to hear that one of the main reasons for these wars we fight is killing the flower of a country's youth, though. They want to believe that sociopaths really care about them, deep down.
@@gratefulguy4130 well the main reason is actually to fund the military industrial complex. No reason to spend trillions on weapons if you're not fighting any wars
I didn't know about the anti-magnetic idea, thanks for posting.
Maybe it wasn't actually meant to be used against mines after all 🤣
If it protected against a flamethrower, maybe it was some form of insulation against hot and cold weather. If the the ammunition gets too hot or cold, it changes the ballistics due to the powder burn rate changing. High temperature increases the burn rate, increasing muzzle velocity and thereby the gun recoil while cold temperature leads to slower burn rate, lower muzzle velocity and increases the likelyhood of backblast from unburned powder when the breech opens.
Steel on its own obviously can get hot or cold very fast.
Well, I guess they wouldn't put Zimmerit on sideskirts then, if that was actually the case 😋
It's great how Zimmerit was simultaneously an entirely pointless idea and accidentally genius. Despite both of those things it probably had minimal impact in actual battle.
It is perhaps the most German invention of all time.
It's pretty obvious it was anti-heat. Most likely it would have avoided too many casualties for us to want to use it (casualties are an "important" part of the wars we fight from the perspective of those who start them).
If that sounds paranoid to you, remember most anti-tank munitions of the time relied on creating a plasma channel with a shaped explosion to melt it's way into armor. If you've got a self-healing (under heat) thick coating on your tank, it will probably make it far more resistant against things like RPG's.
@@gratefulguy4130 okay, "this technology was abandoned because nations wanted their tank crews to die more to justify wars they were already in" is a conspiracy theory I didn't think I'd see
@@gratefulguy4130 I can't emphasize enough that the "paranoid" part of your argument is not "but is it mechanically possible for this to have offered protection" it is the "actually the military is trying to maximize its own casualties for nefarious reasons"
@@johnalogue9832 These people don't listen to the videos they watch do they
christ.
Zimmerit wouldn't do shit against a properly impacted shape charge, that was neither its design need nor its actual function. At best it stopped a tank from cooking from being molotov'd, and was intended to stop a magnetic mine from being placed on the side of the hull (which never actually came into use).
The idea that this simple pseudo-ceramic was "self healing" is funny as hell to me as well.
Wow, Im just now hearing of Zimmerite and I've been studying WW2 a very long time. Thank you sir.
The most ironic thing is that by the time zimmerit was being applied to tanks, Germany had already started adopting multiple other infantry anti-tank solutions, which even included copying the bazooka (panzerschreck), or just straight up using captured soviet AT rifles. By the time they were applying this paste, they had effectively thrown the thing it was supposed to counter into the bin.