I really would like to make a Russian tank for the Barbarosa Campaign but I don't have any on hand. I DO have the DML Valentine MkIII. AVUKICH, in his great post a while back on vehicles that were OK to use in the campaign he lists the M3 Lee as the only lend lease vehicle. Then I was browsing the site www.worldwar2database.com, thanks to a recent post from ANDY007, and it shows a Valentine MkIII under their thread on 1941 Invasion of Russia.

Bottom line, WOULD I be accurate if I made a Valentine MkIII in Russian service in 1941?

Halfyank,

According to what I was able to dig up, most of the lend-lease stuff for Russia was received just after Barbarossa (Nov '41) however some stuff was sent prior to this date (M3 Lee's). I don't know if this completely answers your qestion or not. Check this site out, its where I got my info from. http://www.battlefield.ru/library/lend/index.html Hope it helps.

Hi Halfyank
Here is what I found on theWorld War II fact book site:
During 1941, 487 Matilda, Valentine and Tetrarch tanks were received from Great Britain, and 182 M3A1 "Stuart", and M3 Lee medium tanks were received from the USA. In 1942, a further 2.487 tanks were received from the UK, and 3.023 tanks from the USA. The first units equipped with Valentines and Matilda IIs fought in the Staraya Russia and Valdai areas in the winter of 1941/42. Usually tank units were allotted a single type of Lend-Lease tanks to simplify logistics. An example was the 38th Tank Brigade which in 1942 had 30 Matilda II tanks.
HTH
Jeff Larkin aka beachbm2

Halfyank,

Armada produce a book on lend lease equipment:

Lend-Lease tanks in Red Army (1941-1945), 72 pages illus. $9.95 - this is from armybook - dont know who would stock it in the US. The sovs also got some Churchill tanks as well

Lee

As far as i know they did and a friend of mine showed me a picture of a bren gun carrier in russian service