I have read that the Panzer III ausf. N had a cote of zimmerit. Was this for the late N? Would the DAK version have zimmereit? I have a few excellent books, but one is in Polish and the other Russian. It leaves me in the dark, concerning this. TIA

Matt;

My understanding is that NO Pz. III of any mark routinely had zimm; production of III L and M had pretty much ended by JAN 1943, and N were converted L and M tanks which were fitted with surplussed L/24 75mm - and N conversion / production ended pretty early in '43. All III production had ended prior to factory zimm ordered in SEP 1943, so there would have been no III factory zimm jobs. It may be argued that III tanks recovered from the field in later 1943 would have been shipped to Nibelungen for rebuilding - as many IV were. I don't know that this really happened, as the III was already being pulled from frontline units and sent to rear-areas and training sites by later 1943. And it would seem unlikely that the Germans would have spent much effort and material to zimm up these training aids even if they did get to Nibelungen. The III was pretty obsolete for front service by late 1943. And I've never seen anything saying that any III sent to Nibelungen for refurb were ever zimm'd while there. But that's not to say that it couldn't of happened...

Best of my knowledge, NO DAK vehicles ever had zimm - The north Africa biz began in early 1941 and ended in spring of '43 and so no tanks went to Africa wearing any factory zimmerit. And zimm material was only rarely appearing in the field in Russia by mid-1943. I am pretty sure that none was ever shipped over to Africa for the last gasp of the DAK.

I HAVE seen a couple of pics of what I believe was an N with zimm taken at the end of the war up in Norway. This would have been some sort of "field zimm" or stuff applied by a repair shop up there. There were a couple of III apparently fielded in the Normandy area in JUNE 1944, but I doubt these had zimm - leastwise I have seen nothing suggesting that they did.

Seems to me that your best bet for a zimm'd III would be an N tank up in Norway on security duty.

Just my thoughts! Now I've said all this, somebody - FRENCHY? - will run up a pic of a zimm'd III from somewhere other than Norway! And mores the fun with that!

Bob

Looks like Bob hit the nail on the head. There are some pics of a IIIN with Zimm in Norway here:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11413466/anchors_11413668/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#11413668

Jason;

Yep! Those are the pics I've seen, too! There are a couple more I've seen somewhere, but I don't know where that "where" is, anymore!

My guess is that some unit shop up in Norway zimm'd up perhaps a whole company-worth of the III-N sent up there sometime after June 1943. Some of the zimm looks pretty well done, some a little less so.

I've long thought that these were pretty cool and would make quite a neat show build...

Best I know, it's "Norway or naught" for zimm'd III - too bad, as there were many III-N in Russia in 1943 and some later, but none indicated as having zimm. Not that one of those scandinavian guardians wouldn't look mighty fine on a shelf! So... a guy would need a III-N kit with schurzen and make sure you had a single-piece hatch-lid on hand... and a fine hand on some scratch zimm (seeing as there probably is no III zimm kit out there...).

Thanks for posting this link!

Bob

Thank you for your fast responses. I doubted that the III had zimmerit, but I'm trying to build this one as accurately as possible. It will be the DAK version. So, I would have to build another if I wanted to add the paste.