How a platoon actually fights
Hull-down, bounding overwatch, and why the commander’s hatch is a battlefield.
Hull-down
Park so that only the turret (or the gun of an S-tank) clears the crest. You present the thickest armor and the smallest target. Reverse-slope defense (British and Swedish favorite) hides the hull until the enemy crests. Drones have made true hull-down rarer: the crest is obvious from above.
Bounding overwatch
One section moves; the other watches. Then they switch. It is slow and it is how you cross open ground without everyone dying to the same ATGM. U.S. platoons drill it until it is boring. It is boring until the first missile.
The dismount contract
Tanks without infantry are killed by people in cellars. Infantry without tanks is killed by a machine gun they cannot reach. Combined arms is not a slogan — it is the only way either community survives a block of houses. RPG-7s and Javelins made this true; FPVs made it non-negotiable.
Hatch discipline
Closed-down, you see through sights and cameras. Hatches open, the commander hears and smells the fight and is vulnerable to artillery airburst. Good crews crack hatches in movement, button up before contact. Poor crews stay shut and get flanked, or stay open and get raked.