Probably, anyone, who, by virtue of the circumstances, communicated with technology for a long time, whether it be a tank, armored car, launcher, aircraft, helicopter or just your own car, eventually understands, that technology has its own «floor». Remember: «My swallow» or «Come on, brother, do not let me down».
Someone says, that all this is just invention of technology lovers. Someone will come up with another explanation, but the fact that, that there are cars «men and women», in our opinion, indisputable. And people love them accordingly. And they behave exactly like men or women.
Many articles have been written about the hero of our material and a huge amount of research has been carried out.. Moreover, the paradox, but most of these materials are Russian-language. These tanks did not arouse interest in the West.. Just because, that their main war was precisely on the Soviet-German, and then on the Soviet-Japanese fronts.
And we began our story about light tank Infantry Mk. III Valentine talking about gender for a reason. When studying documents of the wartime, which can be found today, one curious fact is revealed. Soviet tank crews called this vehicle Valentin., then Valentina.
Moreover, these names were not only in conversations with each other. The orders of the commanders also show an ambivalent attitude towards these machines..
Naturally, we tried to find the source of this discrepancy. Can, it's not our fault, and the British? And we just picked up these thoughts when communicating with those, who delivered these cars to the USSR?
so, today there are three versions of the origin of the name itself «Valentine». Which one is correct, you decide. It doesn't matter for us.
so, first version romantic. Version «лириков». Beautifully sensitive. With elements of mysticism. The documentation for this tank was handed over to the British War Office on Valentine's Day.. That is why they named the tank in honor of the saint..
We don't really support the version, to be honest, because in those days the Protestant British about the holidays, associated with catholic saints, it was not very much. But some say this ... historians, Yes.
Another version is more pragmatic. Version «physicists». The name "Valentine" is nothing more than an abbreviation of the manufacturer's company. Recall, the car was manufactured by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd., Elswick & Newcastle-upon-TYNE». Just put the first letters together, and all.
Third version from «historians». The tank is named after a man. The version arose by analogy with other British cars.. so, the tank is named after the genius tank designer John Valentine Cardin, who just worked for the company «Vikkers».
We will not talk in detail about the process of creating this machine.. Let's limit ourselves to the strokes to the portrait.
so, business «Vikkers» by the time the development of Valentine began, she already had sufficient experience in the production of tanks. Have already been created, really not very successful, Mk I (А9.Мк II(A10), and Mk I «Matilda»(A11).
Walked 1938 year, and the army demanded the creation of a universal light tank. The car should be light and fast. But at the same time, solve the tasks of breaking through the enemy defense, becoming for the infantry not only an artillery gun, but also a movable machine-gun point. A further, tanks had to independently make deep raids to the rear.
In February «Vikkers» transferred the documentation for the new tank to the military department. Drawings have been reviewed and highly praised by experts. After testing, a car called "Valentine" (Infantry Mk.III Valentine) have adopted. It happened in February 1940 of the year.
The car was immediately put into production. Factory «Vickers» in Birmingham issued the first tank in May 1940! Then the factories of Metro Cammell and Birmingham Railway Carriage were engaged in the production of Valentines. & Wagon Co. A little later, production was launched in Canada at the factories of the Canadian Pacific Railway..
Let's take a closer look at the tank. And let's start with the layout. We will not see anything new. Classic layout, characteristic of the British. The control compartment and the transmission compartment occupied the front of the hull.. Downstream traffic, fighting compartment in the middle of the tank, including tower. There is an engine in the stern, cooling system and fuel tanks.
The turret of the tank is installed on the turret platform exactly along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle.. In the tower there is one of the hatches for the commander and loader.. Second hatch - mechanics, located above the department of management. On models with a three-man turret, there is another hatch on the turret., for the gunner.
The tank's crew consisted of three people - a driver, commander and loader. With the advent of the triple turrets, a gunner was added.
Interesting tank booking. Considering, that the car is light, the designers could not create a powerful booking. But still, the, what was created, worthy of respect. The armor protected tankers not only from large fragments., but also from medium-caliber shells. The designers used a differentiated principle in the development of armor, i.e, sheets of different thicknesses were installed at different angles.
by the way, it is very easy to distinguish between English and Canadian cars. The Valentine's body was box-shaped and assembled from rolled steel sheets., which were not only attached to the frame, but were also fastened together with rivets and bolts. Canadian cars, the frontal part of the hull was one-piece cast.
Frontal armor plates were of three types. Average armor thickness 60 mm. The sheets had a slope in the frontal part 21 degree to vertical. Generally, for a light tank "Valentine", his forehead went out wherever.
The sides and stern of the vehicle were armored with sheets of two types, 30 and 60 mm, respectively,. The upper armor plates were thinner, lower thicker. The roof and bottom of the hull had the thickness of the armor 20 mm.
Tower of the correct cylindrical shape. No rational angles of inclination to the vertical. Assembled from a single sheet of steel, which ensured approximately equal booking over the entire area of the tower - 60 mm. The same armor was used on the roof, as on the roof of the hull or the bottom - 20 mm.
One detail of the tower is interesting. The designers provided for the strengthening of the armor protection of the turret by installing an additional mask. In the frontal part of the tower, you can see a rectangular opening in the form of a frontal cut. This is where the mask is installed.. And the thickness of this mask 60 mm!
The first "Valentines" were equipped with in-line six-cylinder gasoline engines AEC A189, water cooled. The power of these motors reached 135 hp, but with time, across 150-200 hours of operation, she fell somewhat, what our tankers noticed.
Later models had diesel engines.. This is AEG A190 or GMC 6-71. The diesel power was the same, but kept it throughout the entire period of operation. All three engines allowed the tank to reach the same speed - 25 km / h on the highway.
The chassis was somewhat different from other British. Six road wheels were used on each side. However, they did not gather in blocks of two., and three. In this way, on each side of the "Valentines" had two carts, which were attached to spiral springs.
There were three road wheels on top.. The drive wheel was in front. Accordingly, the guiding, in the form of a star, was behind. Caterpillars "Valentine" had wide steel double-ridged tracks. Generally, the undercarriage was quite satisfactory for the designers and tankers.
The transmission included the following components and assemblies: single disc clutch J-151 dry friction, Meadows type five-speed four-way gearbox 22, bevel transverse gear, dry-friction multi-plate side clutches, double row planetary final drives, swivel mechanisms, consisting of double differentials and an extended propeller shaft.
"Valentines" boast a variety of weapons. The reason is simple. Britain's problems in this matter.
The first modifications of the tank were equipped with a 40-mm rifled QF tank gun. 2 pounder. Long-barreled cannon, with a barrel 52 caliber. With good ammunition in 51 shot. But not capable of penetrating the armor of enemy medium tanks.
Already in the middle 1943 year it was replaced by 57-mm QF 6 pounder. This change slightly increased the firepower of the Valentine's weapons., but did not become revolutionary. In addition to reducing ammunition and the loss of an autonomous machine gun, nothing good came of this replacement.
There were attempts to continue to increase the caliber of the gun.. The latest Valentine Mk IX was equipped with a 75mm QF cannon. 75 mm Mk.V. But few machines with such weapons were produced and it is not worth talking about them seriously..
Vehicles from different manufacturers were equipped with different additional weapons.. The British installed a 7.92 mm Vesa machine gun in a twin gun. The Canadian vehicles were equipped with a 7.62 mm Browning M1919A4 machine gun.
Smoke grenade launchers.
The first "Valentines" appeared in our army in the fall 1941 of the year. These machines did not impress the Russians., but for the Germans. Let's quote the report 2 German Panzer Division 4 tank group about the first battle of "Valentines":
«For the first time, German soldiers faced the fact of real aid to England, which Russian propaganda has been shouting about for so long. British tanks are much worse than Soviet ones.. Crews, which German soldiers took prisoner, scold «old tin boxes, which the British gave them«.
And here is another report. Already Soviet. From the commander 136 separate tank battalion 5 army, who received tanks "Valentine" one of the first, from 15 January 1942 of the year.
«The experience of using light tanks "Valentine" showed:
1. Tank cross-country ability in winter conditions is good, provides movement on soft snow thick 50-60 cm. Good grip, but in case of ice, spurs are necessary.
2. The weapon worked flawlessly, but there were cases of a gun shortage (first five to six shots), apparently due to thickening of the grease. Weapons are very demanding on lubrication and maintenance.
3. Observation in devices and slits is good.
4. The engine group and transmission worked well before 150-200 hours, further there is a decrease in engine power.
5. Good quality armor.
The personnel of the crews underwent special training and owned tanks satisfactorily.. The command and technical staff of the tanks knew little.
A great inconvenience was created by the crews' ignorance of the elements of preparing tanks for winter.. As a result of the lack of necessary insulation, cars hardly started in the cold and therefore kept hot all the time, which led to a large consumption of motor resources.
In battle with German tanks (20.12.1941 of the year) three Valentines received the following damage: one had a turret jammed with a 37-mm projectile, the other has a cannon, the third got five hits on the side from a distance 200-250 m. In this battle, the Valentines knocked out two medium German T-III tanks..
Generally, Mk.III - a good fighting vehicle with powerful weapons, good cross-country ability, capable of operating against manpower, enemy fortifications and tanks.
Negative sides:
1. Poor track adhesion.
2. Great vulnerability of the suspension bogies - if one roller fails, the tank cannot move. There are no high-explosive fragmentation shells for the gun»«.
We almost never write about military operations in the Caucasus.. Today this deficiency will be filled. Especially, that the episode is closely related to "Valentines":
«Of the armored units of the North Caucasian Front, the most eminent and experienced was considered 5 Guards Tank Brigade. The brigade began fighting in the Caucasus 26 September 1942 of the year, covering the Grozny direction to the Malgobek area, Lake (at that time the brigade had 40 Valentine's Day, three T-34 and one BT-7).
29 September, the brigade counterattacked the German units in the Alkhanch-urt valley. In this battle, the crew of the guard of Captain Shenelkov destroyed five tanks on their "Valentine", one self-propelled gun, truck and 25 soldier. 15 fighting in the area continued over the next few days.
During the fighting in the Malgobek area, the brigade destroyed 38 tanks (of them 20 Fired), one self-propelled gun, 24 guns, six mortars, one six-barreled mortar, to 1800 enemy soldier. Losses of the brigade were two T-34s, 33 Valentine (eight of them burned down, the rest were evacuated and rebuilt), 268 man killed and wounded«.
Necessary addition. Pay attention to the figures of the ratio of destroyed / burnt out tanks. 38/20 the Germans and 33/8 at our "Valentines". The fireproof armored partition between the engine compartment and the Valentine's fighting compartment turned out to be quite useful.. And British tanks burned less often than their opponents.
Whatever the experts say about this car, she played a role in the defense of our country in the initial period of the war. but according to the memoirs of Soviet cavalry, this is generally the best war machine. Getting a company of Valentines for the cavalry to support it was the height of happiness.
USSR received under the Lend-Lease program 3332 cars. 450 no cars reached us. In this way, everything has been sent to us 3782 tanka. And this is nothing more and nothing less than 46% from all released tanks and their modifications! We got Valentines from episodes 2 through 7, ninth and tenth series. And requests from our command for 9 and 10 the series went to Britain until the very end of the war.
TTX light infantry tank "Valentine":
Length, m: 5,41
Width, m: 2,63
Height, m: 2,27
booking, mm:
- forehead: 60
- board: 30
- tower: 65
Crew, people: 4
Engine: 1 x AEC A190 power 135 HP.
Power reserve, km: 126
full speed, kmh: 25
Weight, t: 16
weaponry:
- 40-mm OQF Mk IX gun, ammunition 52 shell;
- 7.92-mm machine gun Besa, ammunition 3150 rounds.
Resume: but not bad was easy, but infantry tank.
/Alexander Staver, Roman Skomorokhov, topwar.ru/
