The tank was the catalyst for success and gave the Nazi regime a stunning propaganda coup. The reality of battle, however, had been a sobering experience for many crews. In tank-versus-tank contests the crews prayed that their first shot would hit, turning the enemy vehicle into a flaming mass, as the fuel and ammunition exploded. A miss could mean their own destruction by return.
The prospect of the awful death of men trapped in a burning tank haunted the tank crews. In the footage from all of the major tank battles of the Second World War, from Poland through North Africa, and into Russia, the black columns of smoke from burning vehicles can be seen hanging on the horizon like gathering storm clouds. All too often they marked the Funeral pyres for their hapless crews.
Death or injury could come to the tank crews from a myriad of sources. It was not always necessary to even damage the vehicle. One other ever-present danger for tank crews were metal splinters caused by direct hits on the outside of a tank. As the outside velocity of the impact converted into violent internal energy, these deadly fragments were blown from the inside of the turret, where they would fly around the inside of the tank slicing through the bodies of the crewmen packed together in their claustrophobic world. Riveted tanks in particular were most susceptible to this unpleasant phenomenon, which made the 35(t) and 38(t) deeply unpopular with the crews.