Valentine, a very ordinary tank filling an extraordinary need

Getting there is the battle

*Valentine carrying british troops in the desert *’’Photo from En Wiki, uploaded by: en:User:GraemeLeggett’’ {{PD}}

Valentine was barely adequate… but, as a barely adequate tank that fitted into the limitations of the British wartime economy it was close to a piece of genius.

In design terms it was a retrograde step, a 1938 tank thrown into war in 1940 because it could be built with the available…