Lend Lease Valentine used by Soviet Scouts

Lend Lease Valentines during WW2 were Canadian Valentines with 57mm guns in Soviet service.

A interesting excerpt I ran across …

“the gun on the Valentine was really excellent! It could easily penetrate Tiger’s side armor! And Valentine itself turned out to be a very successful vehicle, low, literally human height.”

….

“Valentine was a more successful tank, small in size, with good maneuverability. Sometimes you could approach a Tiger unnoticed on a Valentine. There was such a case during the Kamenets-Podol’skii Operation. A tank platoon went to reconnoiter — three T-34 tanks. In the bushes, they ran into a German Tiger in an ambush, which shot them up after letting them approach to the distance of 500 meters. Then we sent a 57mm Valentine, which outflanked the Tiger, moved stealthily through the bushes to the distance of 250-300 meters, and destroyed it with only one round. The Tiger burst into flames, and the way forward was open! Otherwise, an entire tank brigade might’ve been held up for three or four hours. Although, we had acquired that Valentine by accident, in some manner it found its way into the motorcycle battalion of the brigade, with the scouts.”

I Remember: Zheleznov Nikolay Yakovlevich (I think)

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