I'm not sure about RO, obviously this is my first post here. I have just recently found out about this game and I am very interested.
I've seen a few videos of german tank crewmen, and one of the things they said was an advantage over a lot of the russian tanks was the commander. In russian tanks the gunner was the commander, while germans had a crewman dedicated to this position. Usually he rode with the hatch open and his head out, and had a 360 degree view of the battlefield. He wouldn't tell the gunner what to do, but he would give out the positions of targets for the gunner. They had a special relationship and understood they didn't get in the other's way.
A second role the commander did, was he would get out of the tank and scout ahead on foot to understand the situation they were going into, looking for traps, ambush's...ect. I would think being able to get out as a commander would be vital to the survival of a tank crew using the real world tactics.
Just my 2 cents...