- Doug_Kibbey
One might do well to remember that there were lots of weapons on the battlefield apart from 88's & Panzerschreks. Anything that reduces vulnerability to the totality of threats being faced is worth considering. Tankers are funny that way.
..or anything that is percieved to reduce vulnerability, i.e. the mental aspect that vonforhud was referring to.
One thing is the advantage in protection from something like sandbags vs the overall reduction in performance of the tank or tank formation. The latter is perhaps somewhat academic for the crew that sits in the vehicle!
But modification that the crew thinks will improve protection may not actually do so. At one point, the German Army issued a ban on such modifacations because welding things to the main armour actually reduced the protective qualities of the armour plate - unless it was done properly. Also, if you look at old tank wrecks, it is obvious that things tended to bounce off smooth plates but would get caught in varous bumps and thus find their way through the main armour where it would otherwise have bounced off. So welding track to your main armour might result in guiding the incomming projectile on its way into your now weakened armour plate.