valantine tanks

[ciaphas]

From having a look at the website i can only find valantine II's was/is there any diffenece between these and the one which were attached to 52nd lowland division, which i understand have the 6pdr not the 2pdr.

cheers
jon

[DanJ]

The 6ld gun was a lot bigger than the 2ld and required a redesign of the turret which included the loss of the loader making the commander very overworked.

However I think  the 6ld version arrived quite late and in relatively small numbers, the bulk of the valentines which fought in the western desert were 2ld armed so I'd buy the 2ld version and if needed just agree with your opponent if you're going to field the upgunned version.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

The Mk VIII is the beast in question - issued just before the operations on the Mareth line. They were issued as 1 - 2 troops per squadron and replaced by th Mk IX asap, as the Mk VIII has no MG's, and a small HE round. Not good for infantry support jobs.

This was roughly the last op for Valentines, dont seem to have been used in Tunisia, since 1st army had Churchills.

IanS

[NTM]

Ian,

Jon is referring to the Valentines which were allocated to 52 Recce Regt (but there is no evidence that they made it to NWE) This could be all my fault as I made reference to it in his TMP thread on the Prinses Irene Brigade.

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=248670

[Sunray]

No intention of hijacking the thread - if any member has more to say on Valentines in N Africa, please do carry on, but this blog reminded me of a great game in 1/300 some years ago (amazing how many games in 1/300 that I am now looking at in 10mm) . We took a 1942/43 Russian army and issued them with Valentines and KV1s.  From footage of Valentines in Red Army service, we assumed the 2 pdr.   It was an interesting game with the potential presence of KV1 making the German/Rumanian players very cautious.   You can have some very interesting games on the Easter front when you are given the roleplay of Germany's weaker allies. 

It is claimed in Tanks & Fighting Vehicles, (Christopher Foss, Salamander books 1977, pp 34-35) that the Russians ' in some cases replaced [the 2 pdr] with their own 76.2 mm tank gun' .  This would be quite  a feat of engineering in the cramped turret and very  small turret ring.  Has anyone see any photos of this conversion ?

Sunray out

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

OK - almost all the valentines in NWE were Mk X or XI - with the 75mm, and acted as command vehicles in Archer batteries, presumably aslo for local protection. M10 nbatteries used Cusader OP's similarly(without the combat bit.) Not heard of any other usage in Europe.

last unit in Africa was 23rd Amoured Brigade - who were the princple users in that theatre, they re-equiped with Shermans from May 43.

Far east there were 6 - lost in the Arakan.

Last major users were the Russians, rearmed with their 76mm.


IanS