Man I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I get hit and knocked out in like every battle and I have to just sit and wait there.
You can either hit escape and go back to the garage (then pick another tank and start another battle) or you can right-click and follow your teammates through the end of the match.
The auto-tracking feature you get with a right-click on an enemy tank doesn't work very often unless you understand a few basic things.
You WILL miss most of the time. If you want to get good, pay attention to distance and target's speed and learn to aim, yourself.
1) Lag. Sometimes a tank isn't where the game is displaying the tank. Thankfully, this is only for tanks that are at extreme ranges from you. Unless you're in a bigger tank, don't waste your time with long range shots.
2) Movement. If a tank even inches forward, your reticle will move in that direction, trying to lead them. Your reticle lead distance and speed is based on your tank crew's skill level. The higher the level, the more accurate the reticle will be even when your target tank is at full speed. Don't bother wasting shots at full speed tanks unless you're close enough to sneeze on them.
3) Crew, crew, crew. The higher level your crew is, the better your tank will perform. Don't waste money to upgrade them to 75% until you're in a tier 3 or tier 4 tank. tier 1 and 2 you'll breeze through so it's not worth wasting 20k on each crew member.
Just because you can't one-shot a tank doesn't mean there's nobody in the match who can't one-shot
you. Play defensively.
Don't rush unless you're just trying to find their artillery or trying to get extra xp for being the first to spot all the enemy tanks. Stick with other tanks your size or find a bigger tank to hide behind and pick on their target with them.