
As you can see in the image above you rely on your side armor to bounce the incoming shells and for many tanks, requires that you point the rear of your tank towards the enemy. Now why would you ever want to point the rear of your tank towards the enemy and purposely take shots at the side? Because the angle of attack is decreased, thus allow for more shots to ricochet. Not only that, but your tracks will also absorb many shots and people are more tempted to take the shot, since instinct is to shoot at the side of a tank. Another advantage of this is the fact that the side armor of most tanks are flush while the front have weak spots; such as, drivers view port and radio man's turret.
Below are some examples explaining how the angle of attack differs between sidescrapping and the regular corner hull down position.


As you can see above, with the regular cornering technique, incoming fire approaches at a 55° angle. While with the sidescraping tactic, incoming fire only approaches at a 20° angle.
Now keep in mind this tactic should not be used in close quarters, unless driving a rear mounted turret, as it would be difficult to face the front of your hull towards the enemy if he decides to further approach. Sidescraping is most effect behind a rock, or other obstacle, in a fairly open area.

As you can see enemy fire would be coming at you from a very sharp angle, whilst you have a clear shot at both of them. I have deflected 21 out of 22 shots with this method using a KV-1 in a Teir VII match. With Wargaming's claims of a near future decrease in bullet normalization this tactic will increase in effectiveness. While this method takes some time to get used to and may become frustrating at first, as you might expose your rear by accident, once mastered can be very rewarding.
Edited by Mindtunnel, Oct 10 2012 - 11:26.