Zimmerit
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Zimmerit was a coating produced for German armored fighting vehicles during World War II for the purpose of combating magnetically attached anti-tank mines, although Germany was the only country to use magnetic mines against tanks in great numbers. It was created by the German company Chemische Werke Zimmer AG.
The coating worked by providing a non-conducting, irregular surface that would reduce the area of contact between a mine and the tank's hull, as well as putting more distance between the hull and the mine. This would cause a magnetic mine to fall off due to its own weight and the vibration of the vehicle. It should be noted that zimmerit possessed no anti-magnetic properties of its own, rather it defeated the mines by simply disallowing contact and providing distance.
Zimmerit was applied to all tanks and closed-top self-propelled guns, but rarely to anything else. The rough appearance of the coating gave a distinct appearance to the vehicles it coated.
Application of Zimmerit was done at the factory, but it appears that many vehicles received field applications before factory-applied zimmerit was actually available. This explains some of the many variations seen in application designs, from the regular ridge-shaped pattern, to a more uncommon waffle-shaped pattern.
Zimmerit was mainly of use on attacking vehicles, and was phased out of use in mid-1944 when Germany moved into a more defensive role. By the end of the war, greatly improved anti-tank weapons had rendered it obsolete.
