Most of the infantry Anti-Tank 'stuff' is sort of a last ditch weapon. If the enemy tanks stop 200 yds short of your position and proceed to shoot it up with cannon and MG fire while their infantry creeps forward all the Bazookas, Panzerfausts, Piats and for the most part AT rifles are pretty much useless. Only if the enemy tanks try to drive
through the defensive position do they become effective and having something that shoots even 75 yds beats the heck out of running up to a tank and trying fling a demo charge onto it's engine deck or into the tracks.
In the desert (or in places on the Steppes) the infantry AT weapons weren't very effective. In Forest/Jungle or towns/cities where the infantry could 'ambush' the tanks they were a lot more effective. The infantry had places to hide and the tanks ability to maneuver was greatly restricted. They often
had to come down certain roads/tracks or go hundreds of yards out of their way (with trees/buildings in the way so they could not support each other).
Trouble is sometimes the tanks could do terrible things to the defenders in minutes if not stopped. In the desert the tanks sometimes turned at the first line of defense and drove down it machine gunning the trench, line of weapons pits and literally driving over guns and positions with the tracks. A
second defensive line now gets a nice flank shot at the tank/s but the men in the first line are in deep trouble. Some times the tanks broke left and right at the same time and rolled up the lines while a second formation of tanks headed for the second line of defense, a several hundred yd wide gap really allowed the enemy infantry access to the position. Granted this is sort of textbook and seldom happened in perfect order.
But telling the infantry to "just wait" for the side shot takes favorable circumstances and determined/brave men.
Bailing out tended to vary with the crews and the threat. If you are a British tanker and an 88 or 75mm takes off one of your tracks you bail out as fast as possible before another round hits the tank. If you threw a track making a sharp turn and have a bunch of MG bullets pinging off the tank you stay inside, try to call for help
and try to locate the MG and shoot back. In the early years the tank shells were too small to be assured of "killing" tanks even with a penetration. Kill or wound one or more crew members yes, but not the entire crew or render the tank totally out of action. Many tank crews and AT gun crews continued to shoot at tanks they hit
until they
saw the crew bail out, flames or large amount of smoke or saw guns point skyward or towards the ground. (British tanks used the gunners shoulder to control elevation). Too many tanks had come back to 'life' after a brief period of time and started shooting again.
Best AT defense for infantry is battery of AT guns occupying the same ground