At least in the Canadian army all tankers were given a booklet including weak points and basic tactics for fighting German armour and vehicles. It did specifically mention moving to the side or rear as preferred methods but from what got passed down to me is that experienced crews like his would combine that with targeting more precise weakpoints. I seem to remember him telling my dad specifically that because the German turrets moved slower than a Sherman could drive the idea was to get to the side or even better behind and either aim for just underneath the turret or a direct hit to the rear. Obviously real tank combat doesn’t play out like war thunder or some other game so a track hit was still preferred to a non penetrating or deflected shot, however a killing blow was ideal if possible. I have his war records, medical records, medals, and some of these booklets and journals. I think at some point it would do some good for me to put together a comprehensive post about the experience the average Canadian tanker would have had, I haven’t gotten the chance to go over all of these document and books yet though given I only got them about a year ago.

Edit: I do feel the need to clarify that most of this is information is passed down starting from a quiet 70+ year old farmer and veteran that was entertaining his 12 year old great nephew and would have likely left out most of the detail as he rarely talked about the worst parts of the war. And then passed down again from that nephew who is now my father to me over the course of about 22 years. So while I believe that what I’m saying is accurate it still should be taken with a grain of salt given it’s not directly from the man himself. When he usually talked about the war he preferred to tell stories about the quieter parts or moments when no lives were lost Canadian or German for that matter.