It’s a modern tank, though. The level of situational awareness it has even with a damaged cupola is incomparable.
Obviously in WW2 you would also get variation depending on individual designs. For example a Panther without a cupola would be in a worse situation than a Tiger, because most crew members other than the commander were almost blind (one of the reasons why so many Panthers were lost to flanking actions). But still, imagine coordinating the operations of a Tiger using only WW2-era gunner optics and what the driver sees. It’s just crippling.
Doubt it. Most of WW2 era tanks had many different visors and triplexes to let the entire team look around. And modern machinery, especially T-72s, provide much less for other than commander. That being said, the crew of the soviet machinery is 3 people, so the awareness drops dramatically if commander is taken out
Since it’s very long, I’m going to quote a couple excerpts that are relevant to this conversation. Also it appears I overestimated the visibility inside Tigers.
[quote] The next German tank, The Panther, had all the same drawbacks. It had a similar cupola with vision slits covered by glass blocks. The gunner and loader had no vision slits, let alone periscopes. This was a strange solution to pair with the high tech T.ZF.12 binocular telescope sight. The vision situation in the driver’s compartment was slightly better. The driver and radio operator/hull gunner had periscopes. The driver also had a vision port in the upper front plate. This port was used during driving since it offered much better vision. However, not one of these periscopes could rotate, which reduced their usefulness. This also meant that little by little, German tank designers made their tanks blind on the flanks.
This can be seen through the evolution (or rather degradation) of observation devices in German medium tanks in 1942-1944. The changes began in 1942 due to a large number of anti-tank rifles coming into service with the Red Army. Anyone who thinks that the leaflets pointing out the location of vision slits on German tanks were only good as toilet paper is sorely mistaken. Blinding enemy tanks was a high priority task for Soviet infantry, and one it performed well. As a result, German tanks lost their vision ports on the side. They didn’t have vision slits anyway and weakened the turret armour. The Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G also lost the loader’s vision port in the front. Observation ports in the turret platform sides were the next to go. Finally, the only vision devices remaining were the commander’s cupola, gun sight, and his vision port (although it was removed on the Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.J), as well as the driver’s observation device. The combat driving device was removed on the Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H.
The Germans were not alone in this. Since all infantry loved to shoot at vision ports, they disappeared from American tanks as well. However, there was a big difference. Other nations replaced vision ports with periscopes that were either a direct copy of the Gundlach periscope or were built according to similar principles. For example, the USSR introduced the MK-IV periscope in 1943. The Germans on the other hand removed observation devices without replacing them with anything, even though there was a possibility of putting a periscope on the Pz.Kpfw.IV turret. Paradoxically, in 1944 German tanks suffered from the same issues that Soviet ones did in 1941-42. [/quote]
