Broken! What does it mean?

[LeadTheWay]

I was playing Morning of the 902nd, and during an artillery strike, I that an american tank had flashed "Broken!" beside it. This happened two other times when my Panzers were overrunning thier positions. I'm just wondering what "Broken!" means. Sometimes, they moved again, and the one, just sat there and never moved or fired again. I just assume that what is broken is random?

Ok, what my real question is, is when a vehicle (or infantry) is broken, what's happening? Can it be fixed?

[MikeyD]

Think of the old movie 'Aliens', the scene where a panicky Marine cries out "We're going to effing die, man!" That's pretty much what 'broken' is. In most movies where that occurs a gruff seargent then grabs the marine by the collar and tells him to shape up and do his job. That's pretty much the effect of morale and chain-of-command on a broken unit. So how/whether a broken unit recovers depends on the original quality of the unit and the quality/proximity of his command. Crack forces recover very quickly indeed.

[Wildman]

A better example would be one of many scenes in a war movie that you see someone at the bottom of a foxhole that is being shelled and they are just curled up in a ball, screaming. They are "broken" of will and will not be able to focus and fight back...they have stopped thinking of the mission or unit and are focused on saving themselves (ie. running away).

[LeadTheWay]

Thanks guys! Just wanted to understand it a bit better.