Say a track seized up or your horizontal turret traverse was jammed by a shell, would it be too far fetched to see a tank crew roll behind a hill in battle and remove the offending piece of material from their vehicle?
In a closed beta test of War Thunder Ground Forces it was revealed that there is no way at the moment to do such a thing and that seems just a little bit off to me from a historical standpoint. I know that there were repair depots and everything for actually repairing vehicles out of battle but was it possible to do small things during a battle if you had time?
Seeing as the game itself is aiming to be more realistic than its competitor World of Tanks, I just wonder if it was actually possible.
T[h]ank you for your time in reading and responding to this.
This manual published by the United States Army basically outlines the procedure: http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/fm4_30x31.pdf
I am on mobile, so my editing capabilities are limited but here are the important parts:
Chapter 5
If tracks are broken, then the vehicle must be put on a ramp and the tracks removed. Obviously, the crew must be aware that the vehicle could roll because it lacks traction. The track is then laid in front of the vehicle and the vehicle drives onto the track.
Chapter 6
This chapter goes further into detail about damage assessment and possible repair options. Thins such as holes in the hull and engine leaks can be repaired on the spot.
Road wheels specifically require a ditch and elevated ground. If the track is damaged, the crew can shorten the length of the track so it uses less road wheels. This is called short-track expedient technique.
As for anything bigger, there is a procedure for that:
This procedure is only necessary when firepower, communication, or mobility is hampered.
When repair is necessary, a crew member assesses the damage and estimates the repair required. The crew member then reports to his commander. If the repair cannot be made on their own, the commander then reports to his platoon leader (remember, tank combat in real life features teamwork).
If repairs can't be made, then the platoon leader will try to arrange for a combat repair team to provide assistance. Obviously, this well depend on the battlefield situation.
If the CRT cannot get the vehicle back into combat order, then the vehicle is taken off the battlefield and then repaired.
Summary
The method used in World of Tanks is somewhat realistic, because of the short track expedient technique. It allows a crew to quickly repair a vehicle's track, although obviously it cannot be done forever (nor in the ten seconds that my Tiger crew can manage) and World of Tanks does not model shorter tracks. This, however, was written for modern tank combat and I do not know if it can be applied to WW2 era tanks.
On the other hand, repairing tracks in the middle of a close-range engagement, as in World of Tanks, is potentially unrealistic. However, real life tank combat also involved infantry, so it up to historical documents from the time to determine this one.
Another thing to remember is these are just games and both of are unrealistic because both lack infantry and small arms, land mines, other vehicles, and of course horses, which were used in WW2 (not for combat though).