valentine X's with Prop. Italy August 1944

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by maisiefosse, Feb 14, 2015.

  1. maisiefosse

    maisiefosse Member

    In his diary for Sept 1944 , my father, a fitter in 3rd King's Own Hussars wrote:
    '[SIZE=medium]1,2 September 1944[/SIZE]
    It is now evident what our special training here consists of- Valentine X's with Prop. under a special RAC training team are housed in 2 of the old seaplane sheds. We've been doing D and M on them for 2 days and expect a trip out in the lake tomorrow. Plenty of swimming- including a reveille dip- and boating. Squadron footer match this afternoon and we lost 3-1

    3 September 1944
    On an elecs class till noon after which went out on the lake in a tank- a new experience and quite a good performance. On a night exercise from 8-11 pm the tanks were on the water for 2 hours one of them breaking a support when about a mile out and sinking, 2 of the crew (FC and PAR) being drowned.'

    This was on the edge of Lake Bracciano.

    Please be patient with my ignorance, but did tanks go on water? Can anyone show me a picture please?
     
  2. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

  3. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  4. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  5. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    I doubt that the tank mentioned was really a Mark X. All the standard reference works I've seen report that only the Mk V, Mk IX, and Mk XI Valentines underwent DD (duplex drive) conversions. The Mk XI was very similar to the Mk X except for the main gun (75mm in Mk XI, 6 pdr in Mk X).
     

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