Valentine Tank - Surviving Tanks

Surviving Tanks

Around 40 Valentine tanks, and vehicles based on the Valentine chassis, survive. Tanks in running condition are at the Bovington Tank Museum (Mark IX), and in private hands in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The Bovington collection includes two other Valentines - a Mark II and a Valentine Scissors Bridgelayer.

Other examples are displayed at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in the UK; the Royal Military Museum in Brussels, Belgium; the Musée des Blindés, Saumur, France and the Kubinka Tank Museum, Russia. In the United States, the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation and the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles both own Valentines. Other examples are at the South African National Museum of Military History and the Indian Armoured Corps Museum in Ahmednagar Fort, Ahmednagar.

A number of Valentine hulls are in private ownership in Australia. These were sent there after the war for use as agricultural vehicles.

Two Canadian-built Valentines survive. Valentine Tank Mk VIIA, no. 838, built May 1943, was a Lend-Lease tank shipped to the Soviet Union. It fell through the ice of a boggy river near Telepino (Telepyne, Ukraine), during a Soviet counter-offensive on January 25, 1944. In 1990 a 74-year old villager helped locate the tank, and it was recovered and offered as a Glasnost-era gift to Canada. It was presented to the Canadian War Museum by independent Ukraine in 1992, and stands on display in the LeBreton Gallery. An additional Valentine built by Canadian Pacific resides at the Base Borden Military Museum in Barrie, Ontario.

A notable survivor is the only intact DD Valentine, this has been restored to running condition and is in private ownership in the United Kingdom by John Pearson. A number of DD Valentines that sank during training still lie off the British coast; several have been located and are regularly visited by recreational divers. This includes two in the Moray Firth in Scotland and two that lie 3.5 miles (5.6 km) out of Poole Bay in Dorset. These tanks lie 100 metres apart in 15 metres (49 ft) of water. A further tank is known to lie in around 10 metres of water in Bracklesham Bay, south of Chichester in West Sussex; the hull and turret are clearly recognizable as it sits on a gravel mound.

In October 2012, a Valentine Mk IX tank that fell through the ice while crossing a river western Poland during the Soviet Army's march to Berlin was successfully recovered. The only surviving Valentine Mk IX to have actually seen combat is reportedly well preserved and could be made operational again within three years.