Valentines overseas

[Mike Cecil]

Valentines in Aust: Commercial surplus import into WA post-war for agricultural use, I understand, but this was hearsay from Bob D (decd) who owned one, and acquired a turret ex-NZ via James S (decd). I have not investigated this aspect.

Australia purchased 33 Matilda MkIV CS tanks from NZ, (possibly 32 of which were CS, and one gun tank) to supplement the existing inventory of 60-odd CS tanks already held (Cabinet docs state 290 2-pdr, 61 CS and 25 Frogs were held prior to the purchase).

Of the NZ purchase, 15 were deficient the 3 inch Hows, which were retained by NZ to equip Valentine tanks (with spares, so the figure of 9 intended Valentine conversions seems reasonable). The other 18 Matildas came complete with their 3 inch How (although the figure may be 17 + one 2-pdr)

None as far as I'm aware, were converted to Frogs. Of the 25 converted to Frog configuration in Aust, none of the WO registrations correspond to the WO registrations of Matilda tanks acquired from NZ, and these were all converted prior to the NZ purchase anyway.

Mike

www.michaelkcecil.com