AT fire in assault hexes

[cjsiam]

TC, don't disagree with you in much of what you say---as I said "murky"....

Some of the consequences trouble me though----
IF you can AT fire, without instigating an Assault response.....
Does that mean that later in that turn the Other side can attack those units with impunity---that is 
  those that AT fired have no attack back?.....

So in the above example if the units fired at the PzIII....as AT fire, and it did NOT instigate an Assault firefight,
the units could (even individually (see other ongoing thread about multiple assaults...) ) Attack the tanks (all at once) 
and suffer no return fire....

I guess that's plausible....the Russians being so focused on the PzIII they ignored the infantry ....

I have some trouble with a, for example, 37mm AT gun deciding it will AT fire at a Tank in the hex (for example) and
doing so without having to suffer a firefight response....thinking they could take the shots and NOT have to deal with 
return fire/ instigating a firefight seems .....well....skewed....

I agree we need a ruling......
Between this issue, and the "multiple assaults" question...the whole Assault mechanic may change for me...