Valentine Infantry Tank 1938–45

Osprey New Vanguard #233

by Bruce Oliver Newsome, Henry Morshead (Illustrator)

The Valentine was Britain's most produced and most widely used tank of the Second World War. Having the strange distinction of falling somewhere between an infantry tank and a cruiser tank, the Valentine first saw combat during Operation Compass in November 1941 and remained one of the main medium-size tanks in British service into 1943. As the Churchill tank became more prevalent, the Valentine was relegated to specialist variants like amphibious and bridge-layer tanks, which would remain in service in the Far East up until the end of the war.
This book describes the evolution of the Valentine design and weighs up its impact on the battlefield. Widely regarded today as one of the weaker tanks to be fielded during the war, it was exceptionally numerous--more Valentines were produced than any other British tank and accounted for 25 percent of the tanks produced in Britain during the war.

Genres: Military History

48 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 2016

About the author

Bruce Oliver Newsome, Ph.D., writes on politics, history, defense, security, risk, and literary fiction. Bruce Oliver Newsome has held standing faculty appointments at the University of California Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, and the University of Texas. Before teaching, he consulted to governments while employed at the RAND Corporation. He is not related to the Governor of California, who is one letter short of a full surname.
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Reviews

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent small British AFV

I've had an interest in British WW2 armour since childhood. My father drove Cromwell tanks during the last year of the second world war, and he'd always had a soft spot for the Valentine, but I'd been rather lacking on information on them in my book collection, so this small book from Osprey has heed fill my knowledge a bit more. Excellent little book, as are all Osprey titles, and would happily recommend this one to any British and Canadian armour buff.