Die Waffenkammer GB022 Valentine Mk.III

Valentine Mk.III

Very fine resin WW II military vehicle kit, in 1/56 scale (28mm). Needs to be assembled and painted. Crew figure and stowage included.

Master by Tony Ashcroft.

The Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. More than 8,000 of the type were produced in eleven marks, plus various specialised variants, accounting for approximately a quarter of wartime British tank production. The many variants included riveted and welded construction, petrol and diesel engines and a progressive increase in armament. It was supplied in large numbers to the USSR and built under licence in Canada. Developed by Vickers, it proved to be both strong and reliable.

The Valentine was extensively used in the North African Campaign, earning a reputation as a reliable and well-protected vehicle, which replaced the Matilda Tank. The first tanks went in action with the 8th Royal Tank Regiment in Operation Crusader. During the pursuit from El Alamein, some tanks drove more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) by the time the Eighth Army reached Tunisia. The tank first served in Operation Crusader in the North African desert, when it began to replace the Matilda Tank. Due to a lack of cruisers, it was issued to armoured regiments in the UK from mid-1941. The Valentine was better armed and faster than the Cruiser Mk II.

There are several proposed explanations for the name Valentine. According to the most popular one, the design was presented to the War Office on St. Valentine's Day, 14 February 1940, although some sources say that the design was submitted on Valentine's Day 1938 or 10 February 1938. White notes that ''incidentally'' Valentine was the middle name of Sir John V. Carden, the man who was responsible for many tank designs including that of the Valentine's predecessors, the A10 and A11. Another version says that Valentine is an acronym for Vickers-Armstrong Ltd Elswick & (Newcastle-upon) Tyne. The ''most prosaic'' explanation according to David Fletcher is that it was just an in-house codeword of Vickers with no other significance.

The Valentine III model is recognized by modifications to the turret design — moving the front turret plate forward and a larger rear bulge — which gave room for a loader to ease the duties of the commander. The side armour was reduced from 60 mm (2.4 in) to 50 mm (2.0 in) to save weight.