Using surviving tank crews to act as spotters: gamey or actual?

[Warmaker]

Most of the time I'll send the crews of knocked out panzers, guns, etc. back to the rear to "huddle for group encouragement" or withdraw. However, there are occasions where I've broken this tendency.

Here's one good one: I had an all veteran Waffen-SS force, which included a StuH42 and a StuGIIIGlate against a U.S. AI. I was playing a QB defending against an assault. It was quite nasty during the main course of the fighting resulting in heavy U.S. casualties/losses of AFVs, but my infantry suffered greatly and the commitment of my assault guns changed the course of battle as they went into a counterattack. I should have kept the two close together during their counterattack but I got carried away and eventually they split ways. I realized this soon and sent the StuH to back up and join the StuG IIIG in its counterattack. However, while it was en route, the StuG came under U.S. bazooka fire and was knocked out and the crew bailed and went to the woods. Interestingly they were quite unscathed with 4 crewmen and quickly improved their morale status to alerted. They were able to spot 2 bazooka teams soon enough and I realized my StuH42 was still enroute... those two bazooka teams are bad news, already claiming my StuG. Instead of withdrawing to the rear, I had them run, sneak through the woods and assaulted each bazooka team one by one with hand to hand combat. 4 Veteran crewmen vs. 2 units of Green 2-man bazooka teams = a rout in my favor. To add insult to injury, a weakened 81mm mortar team was found and I had them take that out too by close combat, though I lost 1 crewman. All this paved the way for my StuH'42 to pass through unscathed by bazookas and it came across a "patched-up" platoon that was preparing for another assault that I new my riflemen could not repel (HMG-42s were out of ammo!). It stopped their plans and scattered the platoon to the four winds and ended it then and there. The crew of my StuG deserved some sort of decoration for this, otherwise the StuH'42 could have suffered the same fate and my defense would have crumbled with the StuH's demise.

Yes, this could have gone quite bad. If there were supporting infantry squads or MG teams nearby, it would have resulted in 4 dead crewmen right away. It was a gamble, but I try real hard to keep my casualties down. Those 'zooks I felt were really needed to be taken out, regardless of the risk.

[Mr. Johnson--]

That is one situation that I would not complain about crews, Warmaker. I do what you do and try to exit crews off map as fast as possible.

[gibsonm]

This is a tough one.

As an OC of an Armoured Recce unit, I know that all of my soldiers have a bail out drill. Given time, this allows them to disable weapons, scramble the vehicle's radios, grab rations and water, turn a vehicle radio into a manpack and get out with their marching order (webbing, pack, etc).

In training this works. On operations, it doesn't. Basically its grab what you can (pers weapon, map, binos, fellow crewmen) and go before the vehicle burns or if not already burning, the 2nd round arrives.

I suspect the guys with the PIAT mentioned had suffered a "minor" problem and were able to bail out properly and had time to get the PIAT. It also appears that they were defending their vehicle rather than conducting offensive ops. This is supported by the fact that they are awaiting recovery.

So if you have time to bail out as per the two page check list (ie bogged) then maybe you can get all the gear needed to both observe the enemy AND report it to someone. Otherwise, I suspect its a small group of guys (some wounded) focused on survival and getting back to the rear.

[Warmaker]

Getting out of a knocked out vehicle has got to suck... you're probably disoriented, in shock, and probably wounded. Add to that if the fighting is in relatively close range, then things could be even more unpleasant...