by Delmer Padgett

Created on: May 17, 2010

Great Britain's Valentine Infantry tank received its slightly romantic name because the concept was presented to the British War Office on February 14, 1938 by the Vickers-Armstrong Company. Nothing was done with the design however until July 1939; when with war clouds gathering over Europe,Vickers received an order to produce 275 of the machines in the shortest possible time. 

The Valentine entered service in 1940 and proved to be a very durable machine. It was one of the most important tanks that equipped the British 8th Army during the western desert campaign in North Africa. During the pursuit of the German Afrika Korps following the victory at El Alamein some Valentines traveled over 3000 miles on their own tracks, an outstanding achievement for an armored fighting vehicle. Valentine's also saw action on Madagascar and in the Pacific against the Japanese. A few served well in the Burmese campaign as well.

Despite the Valentines war record, it was a far from perfect tank and had many design flaws. First and foremost among these was poor armor protection and a lack of penetrating firepower in its main gun. This same flaw was shared by many British tanks of the time and most were vastly inferior to their German counterparts.

The early Valentine's were armed with a 2 pounder (40 mm) main gun and a 7.92 mm machine gun. The 40 mm gun could not penetrate the frontal armor on most German tank models. In all eleven distinct versions of the Valentine were produced and the firepower was constantly upgraded. Beginning with the Mark VIII variant a 6 pounder (57 mm) main gun was added, this also proved inadequate because the Germans had improved the armor protection on their tank designs in the meantime. The firepower problem of the Valentine was not really solved until a 75 mm gun was fitted too the eleventh and last version of the tank. This upgrade was too little to late however, as by this time the tank was being replaced with the American Sherman.

For its size (18 tons) the Valentine also suffered from a very low road speed and this constantly put it at a disadvantage. This problem was not solved till a General Motors engine, very similar to the one used in the Sherman was introduced in the Mark X variant. The Mark I Valentine of which about 350 were produced had a gasoline motor, which caused them to turn into a deadly fireball when hit by an enemy round. This fatal flaw was corrected with the Mark II version when it was replaced by a very reliable

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>