Valentine Medium Tank in the USSR

Written by Евгений Болдырев

Published on Saturday, 24 September 2005 23:30

Last Updated on

Read 14401 times

Mk.III Valentine Cruise Tank was designed by «Vickers-Armstrong» corporation and in February 14, 1936 (the St.Valentine Day — that's why it was named Valentine) showed their project to the War Ministry of the United Kingdom. It was infantry tank by usage, and it was light tank by it's weight (16 tons) however it's 65 mm frontal armor surpassed some heavy tanks. It's maximal speed was the same as of «Matilda» Heavy Infantry Tank because of it's less powerful engine. Mk I Valentine I had petrol engine with 135hp, all other modifications already had AEC or GMC diesel engines with 131hp, 138hp, or 165hp. However the late models were provided with more powerful engines speed was not increased due to increased weight of the tank.

Main feature of this tank was the absence of the hull and turret frameworks, all armor plates combined and fitted to each other using bolts and rivets. In contrast to «Matilda» its chassis didn't have any armor protection, moreover the brakes were mounted outside the hull that affected for their durability. In addition, there were too little room for the crew especially in Valentine III and IV. This tank was the most massed produced British tank — 6855 units were build. Another 1420 tanks produced in Canada.

Soviet Union received 2394 tanks from United Kingdom and 1388 tanks from Canada. It was the most popular British tank among Soviet tankers. What concerns its reliability and durability lets refer to one example: at the beginning of Melitopol Offensive Operation (October 24, 1943) the 19th Tank Corps had 101 T-34 and 63 Valentine tanks. During a battles the Corps lost 78 of T-34's and 17 Valentines tanks while all tanks used with more or less equal intensity.

Parameter	Value
Crew	3
Weight	16,750
Armor, mm	10-65
Armament	1×40mm Main Gun 1×7,92 mm coaxial MG «Besa» 1×7,7 mm anti-aircraft MG «Bren»
Ammo	40 m,: 61 rounds 7,92 mm: 3150 rounds 7,7 mm: 600 rounds
Engine	GMC model 6004, 6-cylinder gasoline, 165 h.p.
Range, km	150
Max speed, km/h	32