Tank riders and pinning

So in the opening phase of last night's action, a troop of Churchills carrying some rather tall Welshmen were caught in a German mortar PRT zone.  The leading tank took a direct hit  although there's not much an 8cm HE bomb can do to harm a Churchill IV, the aforementioned Welshmen leapt off and hugged Mother Earth, becoming pinned.  The following tank was pinned by the mortar fire and there was a question whether the GOB's (guys on the back)ft this tank were also pinned.  The rule book is slightly ambiguous on this particular point but to quote the explanatory text 'they don't hang around with shells impacting around them' (even Guardsmen) so we decided that they would also dismount and become pinned, even though the tank had not been hit directly per se.  

Rules as written, the Guardsmen would remain unpinned, riding their pinned tank. You have to unpin the Churchill in order to disembark them.
Or wait for a direct hit, to disembark them for you.

Yes, because technically disembarking is an order, however I decided to err on the side of history after reading of a similar event happening to a section of the Monmouthshire regiment in the same action on a different sector. They hit the dirt PDQ (one of them was actually knocked flying by the gun when the Cromwell's turret traversed to look for the enemy), but it was quickly discovered that the 'mortar hit' was a PIAT bomb that had detonated accidentally!