Do tanks have any armor protection behind their tracks? If a tank is hit in the tracks, is the crew pretty much left hoping that the shot will be absorbed by one of the road wheels?
The tracks of a tank seem like a fairly large area to be left unarmored.
The treads of a tank have always been a weak spot. Many anti-tank weapons were designed primarily to blow the tracks off a tank, because an immobilized tank was much easier to take down from an infantryman’s prespective.
Several instances in which an M-1 Abrahms was damaged in combat were due to an anti-tank rocket or shell penetrating the side-skirt of the tank, an apparently vulnerable area.
Fortunately, neither the explosive worky bitz nor the crew reside underneath the armoured skirts.
They’re protected as best as could be reasonable by fastening big metal plates to the sides, but basically, yeah, the crew is hoping you’ll either miss or shoot for the bigger, more noticeable part of the tank that has the business end sticking out of it.
Tanks present a more narrow but somewhat predictable target when approaching or moving away, and from that perspective, you’d see that the treads - vulnerable as they are - make up a pretty small part of the picture. Hence, you’re supposed to point your tank at the enemy (that’s why the front has the most armour, too) and give ‘em a proper seein’ to with the big shoota.
When a tank is traversing across your field of vision, the moving mechanism presents a larger portion of the target. However, you’ll have to be able to muster up something with not only the firepower to damage the tank, but to strike accurately as well; modern American battle tanks are capable of truly astounding speed.
There are some frighteningly effective methods that have been developed to counter this, including some that can be carried by infantry; both NATO and [former] Soviet Bloc forces have different kinds of man-portable and vehicle-mounted guided missile systems, plus, if you’ve got a tank of your own, you might be able to get in a shot before somebody on the other side spots you and decides to do you in.
Man, how I wish ExTank were involved in this discussion…