How do tankers see anything

[Pec]

Watched some tank inside breakdowns and im amazed that the crew could actually find targets especially for anything early ww2 with none having a 360 commanders sight hell some have almost no periscopes for the commander.

Does anyone have a explanation for that as i would have thought it would be a relatively simple yet critical feature to have a commanders sight eg the centurion had a submarine style periscope which seems simple enough but you never see it on anything ww2 which i find strange.

[mogami_99]

The commander rode around sticking out of his hatch. The driver had his "window" open

[Canadian Guitar]

Give The Chieftain a watch on Youtube with his Inside The Hatch series.
He's a real world tanker who works(ed?) for a rival gaming company, but also does this as a preservation of history. He does outside and inside of armored vehicles of various types, from the 20s-cold war era, and gives the perspective from someone who would live in a tank, including comfortability for the crew members, and visibility from various positions.

He'll definitely open your eyes up to looking at armored vehicles from the lens of the crew members in a day to day and combat situation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WX4BNOO9gw For example

[R.T.]

Try the sim mode of wwii era ground vehicle, it's a very little piece which is gaijin worked very well. Just try a little bit, if you dive deeply into SB ground mode, it's totally unbalanced.
You need to usb B and commander view to detect the enemy. It's fun.

[Pec]

Postat inițial de mogami_99:

The commander rode around sticking out of his hatch. The driver had his "window" open

What stops a sniper from getting them then or just artillery. I would have thought more focus would be put on crew visibility. I cant understand why commander sights did not appear.

[Suthirak_D42]

Postat inițial de GB:

Postat inițial de mogami_99:

The commander rode around sticking out of his hatch. The driver had his "window" open

What stops a sniper from getting them then or just artillery. I would have thought more focus would be put on crew visibility. I cant understand why commander sights did not appear.

Just avoid using it when not safe. Tank crews still have to communicate with other too. Soldier, other tank, commander can tell them.

Example from Band of Brother. But they fail to find enemy tank first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7kiibl4bpI

[Bibliophylax]

As far as i can tell, tank commanders tried to spend most of their time out of the turret.
The best exemples I have are Germans, the panther cupola from A model till the end of the war and Tiger E have a rotating hatch.
They often keep the head only off the cupola to have a better view and some protection.
There is an exemple in normandy of a panther commander beheaded by a 6pounder round.

The tank hatchs are closed only in intense action and urban fighting.

[Mac]

I wouldn't underestimate the importance of introducing radios in tanks for communication purposes.

I'm not sure anymore where I read it again but I believe it was quite a common occurence that when Soviet tank columns (which early in the war still lacked radios) were attacked in WW2 many of the other tanks that weren't directly hit often did not even realize they were under attack and kept driving forwards.

I also read a story once about a tank commander who previously scouted the area that he was assigned to in latvia in a kübelwagen with his crewmates and binoculars just to figure out what lies ahead. He then drove back to his tank, mounted it and advanced with a rough idea of what kind of guns and tanks he will be facing and roughly where they are.

There are probably plenty more stories like that but I guess my point is that indeed visibility in those "early" tanks was probably ranging from bad to horrible depending on what tank model you were in so you also had to rely on intelligence, scouting in advance and radio communications for guidance and not just vision from within the tank alone.

[Bibliophylax]

That's true, for exemple wittman was a former recon guy. He was better than the others to found ennemy first, and maybe leaved his tank too to have some intel on a crossroad ect.

Finding where you are shot at only by the little periscopes you have over 600-750 is obviously hard.

[Elite:Harmless]

Postat inițial de GB:

Postat inițial de mogami_99:

The commander rode around sticking out of his hatch. The driver had his "window" open

What stops a sniper from getting them then or just artillery. I would have thought more focus would be put on crew visibility. I cant understand why commander sights did not appear.

This is why cooperation with soldier squads are vitally important in real world battlefield, even till today too, soldier goes in and sweep out potential threats specially like sniper or any anti-tank personal, discovered any threats really and then the heavy armor vehicles rolls in to capture the area. In strategic stand point, tank are meant to show dominance NOT fighting other tank.