Ability is interesting, if not very niche. AT guns nullify the added benefits in most cases, but it can still work.
This is a theoretical idea that looks really cool, but is practically very limited in use.
I wanted to make this commander work but it's so freaking impractical in 1v1 because if you set up defensively you often won't be in a good position and have to break out of HD anyway and because it can't hill down itself like churchills in COH1 you have to send Gren/pio/PG to do it and that it frankly usually a poor use of your time where you could be capping or getting into position for attaching/repelling attack. Ostheer is already less mobile than the allies so unless you have locked down a center or something and the end of game is approaching, you are hamstringing yourself.
TL;DR This ability has almost always been a waste in 1v1 due to very fluid nature of that matchup. Does give me the idea to try it in big team game where it might actually be viable as gameplay is more static/less mobile, flanking