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In theory, a sniper can disable a tank.

  • shoot out the gun sight
  • shoot out the driver sight
  • wait for crew to open the hatch because they can't see
  • shoot the crew

Has this ever happened? The snipers that got hundreds of kills in armored warfare environment- did they ever deal with tanks?

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  • Small addition. For some reason, Panzer I is considered a tank rather than a tankette, and with good sniper rifle and penetration rounds, it is possible to penetrate its armour. However, I doubt most snipers would even attempt that, especially if they weren't aware of how thin its armour is. Also I assume it would still require shooting from short range. So in the end, this idea of mine probably leads nowhere.
    – Failus Maximus
    Sep 2, 2019 at 12:18

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Tank commanders will often stand up in their hatch with their head out of the turret to get a better look around. In this position they were vulnerable to being shot, and quite a few tank commanders were shot by infantry of all kinds, including snipers.

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A good sniper might be able to get a bullet through a vision slit, and some probably did. But firing at vision slits was more to blind the tank than to kill the crew directly. Infantry is trained to fire at a tank's vision slits to force the crew to get away from the openings. While the tank is blinded, anti-tank teams can move in.

By far the ways snipers have killed tanks is with a dedicated anti-tank rifle. This is a very large, very heavy rifle designed to penetrate about thin armor at 100 to 300 meters.

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Anti-tank rifles were developed between WWI and WWII. At the start of WWII tank armor was relatively thin. The German tanks started the war with 10 to 30 mm of armor and ended with 150mm and more. Thin early war armor could be penetrated by a large, high velocity rifle bullet at close range. The Soviet Army made extensive use of anti-tank rifles, even late into the war when tank armor had become thicker and the rifles were considered obsolete.

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    There's also a pretty extensive Wiki on Anti-tank rifles. They pretty much got invented as soon as tanks were.
    – user22859
    Aug 29, 2019 at 8:18
  • The bullet ricochet inside the tank could also cause damage to the crew.
    – Mark Johnson
    Aug 29, 2019 at 8:19
  • How long would a tank typically be out of operation if the commander was killed?
    – Gort the Robot
    Aug 31, 2019 at 16:59
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    @StevenBurnap that'd depend heavily on the individual crews. A well trained crew can continue to fight, albeit with reduced efficiency, without its commander. A poorly trained crew may well panic and stop dead in its track, or even retreat.
    – jwenting
    Sep 2, 2019 at 5:35
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    @PieterGeerkens Typically with the TC (tank commander) disabled the gunner becomes the most experienced crew member with the most familiarity with the tank's systems and best able to take over command. The loader is the least experienced crew member with the least familiarity and least capable of command. The TC and gunner's positions usually have redundant vision and weapon controls, while the loader's position often has little or none. Despite being overloaded the gunner is the best choice to take command.
    – Schwern
    Oct 15, 2019 at 6:50
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https://www.quora.com/Is-there-anyway-a-gun-can-take-out-a-tank

The first answer contains a story of an entire tank unit disabled that way by snipers in the Gulf War.

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    Please summarise the story here; it's better than a link-only answer
    – congusbongus
    Aug 29, 2019 at 0:03
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In theory, a sniper can disable a tank.

  • shoot out the gun sight
  • shoot out the driver sight
  • wait for crew to open the hatch because they can't see

[...]

Not true. You are in a case of ocular centrism psychological bias. You can see, so you aren't able to realize how far one can do without seeing.

Put a fold around your eyes and try to do your own routine. You'll find that it was hard, but with a little help you were able to do.

Now picture yourself as a driver of a tank, able to hear, able to feel, able to drive, able to shout, able to read maps, able to compute travelled distances because can see the speedometer, able to see where compass is pointing, able to communicate through radio.

You'll figure out a sniper with no ready anti tank support (specially if unable to call them) is worthless against a tank's crew (specially if they are able to call support).

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