WW2 Tanks VS Grenades

During WWII, both sides in the conflict had attempted to look for the best way to penetrate the thick armor of enemy tanks. Anti-tank guns, launchers, and mines were used. However, a lot of Hollywood movies always lead us to believe that simply throwing to the tank’s hatch was the answer. But weren’t these tank hatchers always locked?

WWII-Movie Perspective

In films like Saving Private Ryan and Fury, a grenade was dropped in the commander’s hatch of the tank to disable it.

For the most part during the war, tanks operated in wide open spaces, and depending on the tank, most of the commanders and crew would be driving around with their hatches open, as the inside can usually be hot and even smelly. 

Just Lock It!

Surprisingly, even in actual battles, many commanders would keep the hatches open if their target was at a considerable distance. This, in turn, gave them more vision and better sight targeting.

Tank hatchers also have locks – they have some form of locking mechanism inside. However, keeping these locked can cause unnecessary time delays to their exit. This will only be likely locked when enemy infantry is close by, and the tank doesn’t have infantry support. 

Rare Occurrence?

If a soldier can somehow mount the tank with the hatch unlocked, they can open it from the outside and throw the grenade in, injuring or killing the crew inside. However, examples of these incidents occurring during WWII were quite rare.

There was one Finnish soldier who attempted to destroy a Soviet tank. He mounted the tank and banged hard on the hatch. When a crewmember opened the hatch, the soldier forcefully threw the grenade inside and killed the whole crew. Still, this happened because a crewmember opened it from the inside – not outside.

Therefore, we can arguably say that the ability of a grenade to disable the tank from one of the hatches is incredibly rare and unlikely.