Mark 1-XI
Type :infantry tank.
Crew :3 men (4 in Mark III and IV).
Armament:a 2-pound cannon and a 7.92 mm Besa (Mark I-VII); a 6-pounder and a 7.92mm Besa (Mark VOICE); a 75mm cannon and a 7.92mm Besa (Mark XI).
Shielding:
minimum 8mm;
maximum 65mm.
Dimensions:
length (overall):5.41 m;
width :2.63m;
height :2.27 m.
Weight in combat order :16.25 t.
Engine :AEC gasoline developing 135 hp (Mark I); AEC diesel, developing 131 hp (Mark II, III, VIII); GM diesel, developing 138 hp (Mark IV, IX); finally, GM diesel, developing 165 hp (Mark X, XI).
Performance:
road speed speed:24 km/h;
range speed:144 km/h;
vertical obstacle :0.91 m;
clean cut :2.36m;
slope :60%.
Service time :introduced in May 1940 in the British army; expired May 1945. Also employed in Canada, France and the Soviet Union. Also made in Canada.
A commercial initiative of Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, the Valentine tank responded to the principle prevailing before the war in the British army and providing for two types of tanks:a cruiser tank for operations in open terrain such as those formerly carried out by the cavalry and a heavy tank for infantry support. For the latter, armor took precedence over performance. However, Vickers took over in the Valentine several mechanical components from existing cruisers that the company itself was building on orders from the War Office; this organization allowed him to save time and work in the realization and the tests of “his” tank. In fact, when she was born, the Valentine was more of a well-armoured cruiser than a pure infantry tank, but her lack of speed was always a handicap in open terrain.
The tank took the name of the saint of the day when the design was submitted to the War Office:February 14, 1938. The order was not placed until July 1939 but then the ministry demanded 275 units as soon as possible. The first were commissioned in May 1940 and several given to the cavalry to compensate for losses at Dunkirk; it was only later that they arrived in the armored brigades to play their true role there, the support of the infantry. When production closed in early 1944, 8,275 Valentines of all versions had rolled off the production lines. About 1,420 were built in Canada and 1,390 of them, together with 1,300 units from the United Kingdom, were sent to Russia.
The Soviets threw them straight into battle and greatly admired the simplicity and reliability of the engine and transmission but showed a complete lack of enthusiasm for the gun, a paltry caliber for the Eastern Front. In some cases, they replaced it with their own tank gun, the famous 76.2 mm of the T-34.
In the British army, the Valentine received its baptism of fire in South Africa. Nord in 1941 and its successive versions remained on the same battlefield until the end of the campaign. Some landed in Tunisia with the 1st Army. These Valentines of the desert carved out a great reputation for hardiness and it is reported that after the battle of El Alamein, some of them still covered more than 4,830 km, following the e Army.
A squadron was grounded with the first assault wave in Madagascar in 1942, and the Third New Zealand Division fielded Valentines in the Pacific theatre.
On some of these tanks, the 2-pounder gave way to the 3-inch howitzer for close support. A very small number of these devices were sent to Burma and used in Arakan; some reinforced the garrison of Gibraltar. In 1944, when the Normandy landings were being prepared, the Valentine was upgraded as a main battle tank, but the hull and chassis were already used in a whole range of different roles and it was under these various liveries that many Valentines were taken to France.
No other tank, arguably, has seen so many changes to its fundamental structure. As a battle tank, the vehicle knew eleven successive versions but it is necessary to add the Valentine DD (amphibious), bridge layers, flamethrowers and several types of demining machines.
The basic vehicle was perfectly suited to the most eccentric experiments:to cite just one example, we decided one fine morning to strip a Valentine chassis from. all superfluous parts, to adapt a few rockets and finally to realize the old dream of Jules Verne:the flying tank. Jules Verne has turned in his grave...
As in most cases, the hull of the tank was divided into three compartments:the driving position, the combat chamber and the engine compartment. The driver was installed in the axis of the vehicle and did not have a superfluous square centimeter. He accessed the vehicle through a hatch located above his seat and, once the panel was folded down. he could only see outside through a small viewfinder and two episcopes.
The turret topped the combat chamber and this turret was a resounding failure. Still too cramped, on all versions, no redesign managed to really improve it. In the three-man crew versions, the two occupants of the turret were permanently overworked, or at least the tank commander:the poor man had to command the vehicle but also load the main armament, choose the targets for the gunner and act as radio operator...
His field of vision was extremely restricted because he had no cupola and had to rely on a single episcope when the tank was in position of combat, all hatches closed. As a result, and most naturally, he would often leave his hatch open to peek occasionally. Such a habit was bound to cause many losses. At the rear of the turret was radio set No. 19, which itself had a small short-range set for communicating with infantry during a joint operation.
The tank commander served both positions; in addition, he directed his crew by means of a radiotelephone. We can therefore only approve of the tank commanders' preference for the Mark III and V with a four-man crew, even if the habitability of the turret was not better and the vision equipment was just as bad.
The gun was as disappointing as the turret.
A good little piece of good precision, though, this 2-pounder. But it was already obsolete in 1938 and only got a reprieve in the first battles of the desert because it barely managed to hold off the Italian tanks and the lightest of the German tanks, at its maximum range.
Which did not exceed the figure of 1 km, which had it must be said:nothing impressive Another defect, the gun had no breaking shells for the objectives generals. The ammunition payload was 79 rounds and some 2,000 rounds for the coaxial Besa.
The Mark VIII, IX and X mounted a 6-pounder but even this superior caliber was already almost outclassed when it appeared; furthermore, through incredible negligence, the Mark VIII and IX had no coaxial machine guns to their 6-pounders so that the crew was reduced to employing the main armament against infantry. The Mark X had a Besa but the installation of the machine gun further reduced the habitability. Most versions carried inside the turret a Bren light machine gun that could be mounted on the roof where, of course, only the tank commander could operate it, completely uncovered.
The Canadian-built Valentines replaced the Besa with a Browning 30 machine gun and some (only some) of the later versions had smoke launchers on the sides of the turret.
The movements of the turret in azimuth were assisted by a hydraulic motor. This system ensured a good score but the final touch was given by manual control.
On the 2-pounder, the only aiming mechanism in elevation was a stock on which the shooter's shoulder rested! On later models, the room covered its vertical firing sector under the control of a manual aiming wheel.
Unlike the combat chamber, the engine compartment was large and accessible. Maintenance was easy for a tank engine, and the entire drivetrain was completely satisfactory. The Mark I was fitted with the AEC petrol engine but all subsequent versions used diesels, with no noticeable drawbacks, it seems. The movement was transmitted to a five-speed Meadows gearbox and then to steering clutches and brakes, the latter protruding from the outer face of the sprockets.
One of Valentine's first conversions was a self-propelled gun, the Bishop. This machine, a 25-pounder in a thin armored box perched on a Valentine chassis, was intended for combat in the desert. It lacked speed, habitability and a sufficient supply of ammunition. So he disappeared from the front at the time of the landing in Sicily.
A conversion up a 17-pounder was more successful. A fixed mounting surmounted the driving position and the chamber of combat; the gun was pointing over the quarterdeck. This machine, baptized Archer, answered all the hopes. The Archer was produced in relatively large quantities and remained in service with the British army until the early 1950s. Admittedly, it suffered from two major flaws:first, the driver had to leave his seat before firing because the recoil brought the cannon straight to its post; then, the lack of shielding in roof made itself felt. But (Archer came in handy at a time when anti-tank materiel was scarce, and he was invaluable when a gun strong enough to keep the Panthers and Ters at bay was needed.
ammunition load was 39 rounds but, as so often on British tanks, the shells left very little room for the men and even less for their equipment.In winter, the superstructure could be covered with a tarpaulin but, in case of bad weather, the Archer gave his crew every reason to curse him.
All versions used riveted armor with virtually no oblique planes. The Canadian Valentines and the British-built Mark X and XI received cast steel frontal plates, which were both stronger and cheaper to manufacture, but the armor design generally lacked inspiration. The front was obviously the best protected but at the rear and for the roof, the armor fell from 65 mm to 8 mm, a very thin protection for the time.
The suspension, typical for the period, was of the
slow travel” type and consisted of two bogies of three wheels on each side, the wheels being suspended by horizontal springs in coupled bogies. The front and rear wheels were of a larger diameter than the intermediate wheels, a very distinctive sign in profile view, and the hull was carried well above the ground. The return of the track was carried out using three support rollers, and the shoes were made of cast steel. These tracks gave complete satisfaction in all circumstances except in Russian territory where, in winter, they tended to get stuck in the snow.
The DD version of the Valentine was mainly used for training, but some machines landed in Italy; none in Normandy. The DD was a normal Valentine, carefully sealed and fitted with a folding screen that suspended the hull below water level. The vehicle also mounted a screen on the outside that had to be raised when docking.