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Valentine Mk.III Tank In New Zealand Service

Developed by Vickers in the late 1930’s the ‘Infantry Tank Mk.III, Valentine’ was designed as a tank to support infantry operations, and over the course of the Second World War over 8200 of the type were produced—these accounting for almost a quarter of all British tank production during the war years.

In addition to being used widely by the British Army, a significant number of the type were supplied to the USSR, and 255 were used by the New Zealand Army.

Valentines were introduced into the New Zealand Army in late 1941 to equip the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Tank battalions. Of these, 100 were Mark II’s, 74 were Mark III’s and 81 were Mark V’s, These tanks were equipped with a QF (Quick Firing) 2-pounder gun which could only fire armour piercing rounds which meant while they were perfectly adequate for training within New Zealand, they were not ideal for close infantry support work in front line areas.

When the New Zealand 3rd Division was sent to the Pacific Theatre in 1942 they were accompanied by a tank squadron of nineteen Valentine Mk.III’s (plus six additional replacements), of which seven had been converted into the Mk.IIICS (for ‘close support’). This unique conversion replaced the QF 2-pdr guns with 3-inch howitzers which had previously been installed on Australian Matilda IV tanks.The howitzers were capable of firing high explosive shells which made the IIICS far more suited to close infantry support work in the jungles of the Solomon Islands.These tanks could carry 21 high explosive rounds (compared to the 60 rounds of armour piercing shells that could be carried in the 2-pounder equipped models), and 14 smoke shells.

In February 1944 the tank squadron saw its only action against the Japanese. Two Valentines of the squadron on Nissan (Green) Island were tasked with supporting infantry who were driving the enemy from the village of Tanaheran. The tank crews suffered no casualties during the engagement, but one of the Valentines temporarily reversed out of the battle, carrying a wounded infantryman away from the Japanese small arms fire.

Introduced into service in 1942 the Valentine was powered by an AEC A190 diesel engine which could propel the tank at speeds up to 24km/h on the road, and its fuel capacity gave it a range of 140 km (on a road surface). The crew of four (commander, gunner, loader, driver) were protected by armour from between 6-6mm thick, and were armed with either the QF 2-pdr gun or a 3” howitzer (on the Mk.IIICS models) plus a single 7.92mm machine gun.

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