Tankopedia
WW2MediumMedium TankUnited Kingdom

Valentine

In service 1940 - 1945

Britain's most-produced tank of the war: small, slow, tough and dependable.

Built byVickers-Armstrongs, Metropolitan-Cammell, Canadian Pacific

Valentine
Valentine II, Patriot Museum, Kubinka — Alan Wilson, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

Development history

Privately designed by Vickers, the Valentine was accepted because it could be built immediately. Cramped, with a three-man crew and a turret too small for larger guns, it was still reliable and well armoured for its size. Around 3,700 went to the Soviet Union, where crews rated its mechanical dependability highly. The Archer tank destroyer used its chassis.

Variants

One canonical record, 4 recorded variants.

  1. Mk I-III

    1940

    2-pdr gun; Mk III introduced a three-man turret.

  2. Mk IX

    1943

    6-pdr gun with the coaxial machine gun removed.

  3. Mk XI

    1944

    75 mm gun and GMC diesel; mostly used as command vehicles.

  4. Valentine DD / Bridgelayer

    1943

    Amphibious screen trials vehicle and scissors-bridge carrier.

Notable actions

  • North Africa 1941-1943
  • Eastern Front 1942-1944
  • New Zealand operations in the Pacific