There was a document that I found ages ago that was a report on the effectiveness of air attacks on armor. I have since tried to find it with no luck.
What it said was in essence this: Many P-47s and Ponies claimed kills on Tigers and other German armor while strafing and attacking with rockets. What was discovered is that many times what the pilots observed and claimed as a kill, was the external fuel tanks exploding and burning. The pilots saw a large fireball and just assumed and reported the tank destroyed. Bombs were also ineffective other than a large explosion tipping the tank over or having it tip into the crater. Many pilots also claimed that strafing the top of the turret resulted in kills due to the limited armor thickness. Here again, what was discovered were fuel tank explosions. Armor thickness is thinner on top, however unless a vertical attack was done the bullets were hitting the armor at an angle, which increased the armors thickness due to angle penetration. And in spite of what occurs in AH, vertical attacks didn't occur for that purpose.
But as always occurs, there will be an outcry of "The tanks aren't modeled right cause I can't strafe a panzer with my Spit and take out his turret". This is if HT made armor react properly to bombs and bullets. This has been brought up many times in the past. I am afraid it is this way for arcade purposes, not "Realism".
LTARsqrl