The Secret British Modification That Turned Obsolete Valentine Chassis Into Tiger Killers
British Trick Files
4,920 views
How did Britain turn an obsolete Valentine tank into a Tiger killer by bolting a 17-pounder on backwards, and what happened when these Archer tank destroyers met Panthers in the Rhineland in 1945? This WW2 documentary follows the strangest British tank destroyer of the war, from the Tiger's arrival in Tunisia to a single troop credited with seven tanks on the Goch–Calcar road.
With the 2nd Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment, the Royal Artillery anti-tank regiments, Archer driver Frank Whitehead, the Tank Museum's drill instructions, and Lt David Heaps of C Troop, who won the Military Cross against Panzer Lehr during Operation Veritable.
Chapters:
0:00 Seven tanks on the Goch–Calcar road
1:33 Tunisia 1942: the Tiger arrives
3:08 The turret ring problem
3:38 The Valentine, Britain's workhorse
5:43 Turning the gun backwards
6:40 Four inches from the driver's head
9:20 The driver myth
12:05 Operation Veritable
14:20 Lt David Heaps and C Troop
17:16 Shoeburyness: the 17-pounder vs a Tiger
18:38 The honest part about the numbers
19:39 After the war
Sources and further reading:
C.P. Stacey, The Victory Campaign (Official History of the Canadian Army, vol. III), pp. 487–489: Panzer Lehr's 22 tanks, seven tanks credited to C Troop — https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/C...
Terry Copp, "Clearing Moyland Wood", Legion Magazine: "seven Panthers" — https://legionmagazine.com/clearing-m...
Military Cross citation, Lt David Heaps, London Gazette, May 1945 — https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/4...
IWM oral history 23137 (Frank Whitehead), Tank Museum drill instructions and TNA WO 32/11030, as discussed on WW2Talk — https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads...
The Tank Museum, Valentine — https://tankmuseum.org/tank-nuts/tank...
⚠️ Heaps' citation says "17-pounder self-propelled", never "Archer"; the official history credits seven tanks, Terry Copp calls them Panthers.
⚠️ No Archer Tiger kill is documented: the Italian Tiger story rests on one 1979 account (Bryan Perrett), the Shoeburyness 900 m result on a secondary summary.
⚠️ 655 vs 665 built; "the driver climbed out" is a myth per the documents; the drive-away tactic and Egypt's 1956 success come from modern or thin sources.
#WW2 #MilitaryHistory #ArcherTankDestroyer #17Pounder #OperationVeritable
The Secret British Modification That Turned Obsolete Valentine Chassis Into Tiger Killers
British Trick Files
4,920 views
How did Britain turn an obsolete Valentine tank into a Tiger killer by bolting a 17-pounder on backwards, and what happened when these Archer tank destroyers met Panthers in the Rhineland in 1945? This WW2 documentary follows the strangest British tank destroyer of the war, from the Tiger's arrival in Tunisia to a single troop credited with seven tanks on the Goch–Calcar road.
With the 2nd Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment, the Royal Artillery anti-tank regiments, Archer driver Frank Whitehead, the Tank Museum's drill instructions, and Lt David Heaps of C Troop, who won the Military Cross against Panzer Lehr during Operation Veritable.
Chapters:
0:00 Seven tanks on the Goch–Calcar road
1:33 Tunisia 1942: the Tiger arrives
3:08 The turret ring problem
3:38 The Valentine, Britain's workhorse
5:43 Turning the gun backwards
6:40 Four inches from the driver's head
9:20 The driver myth
12:05 Operation Veritable
14:20 Lt David Heaps and C Troop
17:16 Shoeburyness: the 17-pounder vs a Tiger
18:38 The honest part about the numbers
19:39 After the war
Sources and further reading:
C.P. Stacey, The Victory Campaign (Official History of the Canadian Army, vol. III), pp. 487–489: Panzer Lehr's 22 tanks, seven tanks credited to C Troop — https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/C...
Terry Copp, "Clearing Moyland Wood", Legion Magazine: "seven Panthers" — https://legionmagazine.com/clearing-m...
Military Cross citation, Lt David Heaps, London Gazette, May 1945 — https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/4...
IWM oral history 23137 (Frank Whitehead), Tank Museum drill instructions and TNA WO 32/11030, as discussed on WW2Talk — https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads...
The Tank Museum, Valentine — https://tankmuseum.org/tank-nuts/tank...
⚠️ Heaps' citation says "17-pounder self-propelled", never "Archer"; the official history credits seven tanks, Terry Copp calls them Panthers.
⚠️ No Archer Tiger kill is documented: the Italian Tiger story rests on one 1979 account (Bryan Perrett), the Shoeburyness 900 m result on a secondary summary.
⚠️ 655 vs 665 built; "the driver climbed out" is a myth per the documents; the drive-away tactic and Egypt's 1956 success come from modern or thin sources.
#WW2 #MilitaryHistory #ArcherTankDestroyer #17Pounder #OperationVeritable