Half-track Passenger casualties

[Cross]

I noticed that when a half-track gets destroyed, it’s typical for all passengers it’s carrying to become casualties.

Test

I set up a quick test with 10 M3 half-tracks loaded with ten man infantry sections.

Then destroyed them with 5.7cm AT guns.

Results

7 times out of 10: All 10 passengers became casualties.

The other 3 times there was 1, 2 and 3 passenger casualties

I did the test again:

7 times out of 10: All 10 passengers became casualties.

The other 3 times there was 0, 2 and 3 passenger casualties

Is this realistic?

I also set up tests with ten 30cwt trucks with ten passengers and then destroyed them once with MG fire and once with HE fire. In both tests the 10 man infantry squads/sections almost always lost just one man.

My intuition says we’re being a bit severe with the halftrack passengers. Especially if you compare the casualty rate to the passengers of soft vehicles that are destroyed.

I'm thinking it would be difficult to find historical data on half-track passenger casualties; but if anyone knows of any, I'd love to see it.


Solutions

If it's decided the casualty rate is on the high side, what are possible solutions?

1. Is there a way to ratchet down the level of passenger casualties when a half-track gets knocked out? Are the passenger casualties directly tied to the vehicles crew survivability?

2. Perhaps the passengers should bail soon after they come under fire, like they do when in trucks and other soft vehicles, and tank riders often jump off the tank once the tank comes under fire.
But I’d rather not have passengers bail out of a half-track under small arms fire. They’re safer in the half-track! I'd guess it can’t be coded to have passengers bail out only when under fire from AP rounds.


cheers,
Cross