Who used Valentines in 1945?

From Rhineland by WD & S Whitaker.
A miscaptioned photo .
IWM B14657.
They say it is a "Drowned Churchill tank near Kranenburg" , but it's not.
So who were still using Valentines in early '45?
Artillery OP tank, Engineers ?

 

That is a Valentine XI isn't it?
Used only as a command tank.
Am I right , oh great tank-nerds?

 

Enter 'Kranenburg' into IWM collections and a variety of images of Archers in floodwater pop up, seems possible the vehicle is serving alongside them.

XI would be a 75mm armed version.
The 'OP/command' was specifically named as such and seems to have been converted from any ex-gun tank to serve with Archers.

 

Kranenburg, Netherlands. Would that have been on the Island?
The one just north of the Reichwald.
Captured by 15th Scottish Div in Feb'45.
Then 43 Wessex moved on through it.
Warlord
I´m totally in the dark here, but very interested; what´s the link between the Valentine and the Churchill?

There isn't one, the caption is wrong.

 

Valentines equipped with a heavy gun (at least heavier than the 2pdr peashooter)? Since when?
A Valentine was used for testing the British 75mm tank gun in '43. The test installation was entirely succesful so it was decided to upgrade production to include the 75. From Mark VIII to X she carried the 6 pdr.

YouTube - Valentine tank starting up. Smoke...
YouTube - Sherman and Valentine set off

 

Both came in very late Lee, oct '44 onwards for Archer. M10 had been in service since '42 with the yanks and early '44 with the British but the 17pdr Achilles version was apparently available in the field only early '45.
I wouldn't say one replaced the other, if anything the Archer was the 'official' SPATG post-war for quite a few years.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
To answer my original question , it's been on my bookshelf all along.
Tank Alert!
by Ivor D Astley , RA.
Who was in 236 Battery, 59th Anti-Tank Regiment, 43rd Wessex Division.
My "own" pet unit.
From page 83 of his book.
February 1945,
BHQ was now the proud possessor of a tank!
This was a Valentine, mounting a 75mm gun.
It was to be the Battery commander's "armoured observation post" and not for offensive work.
Its appearance , at the head of our convoy , gave us quite an aggressive look, but it was dwarfed when passing its bigger brothers, the Sherman and Churchill.
We were able to operate a 19 Set from it and on the single-road journey towards Cleve which lasted for two days , we were very glad of the comparative comfort as opposed to operating a set from an open carrier.
Dumbo was the driver ; he handled this new toy very efficiently.

 

I've got my doubts too Lee, the above was from Chamberlain & Ellis but I'd always thought a handful had made it to units earlier than that. It is possible that they're using 'Achilles conversion' in some official manner. (though there's even doubt that 'Achilles' was ever really an official name). I'll check Buckley's book which is likely to be much more reliable.

 

Can of worms being opened up here.
It seems the intention was to have 1000 M10s converted to 17pdr spec by Normandy but it was found that only the later 'T71' mark of M10 could take the 17pdr. "by May 1944 it was estimated less than 100 would be available for Overlord" (Buckley).

The conversions were apparently only done in dribs and drabs as manpower, the right mark of M10 and, most difficult, guns, became available. This might explain why I've now found 4 different dates in books and 3 more on the web for their date of introduction.