Valentine Mark VI Closeup Part 1

The Valentine, Infantry Tank Mark III, was designed as a private venture by Vickers in 1938, submitting the plans to the War Office around Valentine's Day (hence the name). The tank first saw combat in North Africa in late 1941, and quickly gained a reputation among Commonwealth troops as a good, reliable, very mobile tank. The Valentine's reliability, thanks to its AEC 6 cylinder engine (adapted from a bus design), is what set this tank apart from other British tanks of the period. The basic design proved extremely adaptable, and was progressively upgunned from a 2 pdr. in its initial marks through to a 75 mm. gun in the Marks X and XI. The Valentine also tested many of the specialized armour concepts that were used by the 79^th Armoured Division during the invasion of Normandy, including swimming tanks, bridgelayers, flamethrowing vehicles, and mineclearing tanks. Over 8,000 tanks were produced in the UK from 1940 through 1944, and an additional 1,420 were produced at Canadian Pacific's Montreal Locomotive Works (Mark VI and VII), all but 30 of which were shipped to the Soviet Union as Lend-Lease. The subject of these photographs is a very early production Mark VI (essentailly similar to the Mark I and Mark II, except for the engine, a GMC 6 cylinder diesel, and some fittings) used to train Canadian armoured troops, on display in Worthington Park, CFB Borden, Ontario. A special thanks to Paul Roberts, author of the Darlington Press book on the Valentine (see additional resources at end of article), for his comments and corrections to this article.

The Valentine featured the unique patented "Slow Motion" suspension, originally developed for the A9 and A10 series of Cruiser tanks. The suspension consisted of three wheels, one large and two small, mounted on a pivoting beam with a large coil spring to provide suspension. There are four sets on the vehicle, handed so that the large wheel is outermost on each corner. The ruler visible in this and several other shots is Don's handy 12 inch/30.5 cm steel rule.

A closeup of the rear-mounted drive sprocket, clearly showing the unusual externally-mounted brakes, which led to a large outer hub.

Remarkably, the rubber of the front fenders is still intact. The rubber is attached to the fenders proper with an unusual scalloped adapter. Inboard of the fender is one of the large, civilian-style headlight mounts (the light itself has long been broken). The Canadian-pattern lights, slightly different in shape from those fitted to British-produced vehicles, could pivot and point to the rear of the vehicle to protect them from damage when not being used. The large fairing on the fender is for the horn (which is missing), while the smaller one outboard is for a station-keeping light (also missing). The brace mounted to the superstructure is a support for the driver's hatch when it is open, while the huge countersunk screws (!) used to construct the superstructure are also visible.

This shot shows details of the fender construction, as well as the headlight mount and station-keeping light and conduit. The texture of the armour plates is clearly visible, as are the large hex bolts used in construction. The rack on the fender is for the jack block.

An overall view of the right front of the vehicle, clearly showing the driver's two periscopes and hatches. The large stowage box behind the jack block stowage is unique to Canadian vehicles, and is one of the features which point to this vehicle being a very early production Mark VI, as opposed to a British Mark I or II.

Although the shadows are somewhat harsh, some useful details of the fender construction and the conduits for the lights can be seen here.

This shot up along the right fender shows the robust fender braces to advantage. The rectangular fittings on the fender alongside the hull are supports for the engine access doors when they are open. Note that all of the on-vehicle tools are missing from this vehicle, although the clasps for the track tensioning tool and pick handle can be seen between the two large fender braces.