During a lengthly WoT session I had with a friend today, the question came up, wether the shell casings were ejected from the turrets back then and quite frankly, I have no idea if they even are today. I guess it works that way on some tanks, but as I understand, a lot of tank guns are still loaded manually, so I am wondering, where does/did the shell casing go?

Do they just fall out at the back of the tank somewhere or did they have to clean out the turret after a major engagement?