Archer Tank Destroyer - Walkaround - Nationaal Militair Museum.

The Self Propelled 17pdr, Valentine, Mk I, Archer
was a British tank destroyer during WWII it was based on the Valentine infantry
tank chassis fitted with an Ordnance QF 17 pounder gun.

Designed and manufactured by Vickers-Armstrongs.
development of the Archer started when the army wanted the
17 pounder anti-tank gun, to be moved about the battlefield only by a vehicle.
A variant of the Churchill tank had been built
in 1942 as a self-propelled gun. Other projects were considered using
obsolete tank chassis, including the Valentine for its reliability and low profile
and the Crusader for its good power-to-weight ratio.
The Valentine chassis was soon chosen and was also one of the few chassis
that could accommodate such a large gun.
Since the Valentine had a small hull and it was not possible to use a turret,
the gun was rear mounted in a simple, low, open-topped armoured box,
this would mean, the gun was facing to the back.
On firing, the gun breech recoiled just shy of the driver's space,
with the driver staying in position, in case the vehicle needed to move quickly.
655 were produced between March 1943 and May 1945.
The rear mounting combined with its low silhouette made the Archer an
excellent ambush weapon, allowing its crew to fire,
then drive away without turning round.

The first prototype was completed in 1943,
with firing trials carried out in April 1943.

Production started in mid-1943 and the Archer
entered service in October 1944.
It was used in North-West Europe and in Italy.
By the end of the war, 655 of them had been produced.
It would see service until the 1950s.

Post-war, the Egyptian Army received 200 ex-British Archers
after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Some were successfully
used against Israeli armour in 1956.

After the war 12 remained in the Netherlands after the liberation.
The Royal Netherlands Army did train crews
for the 'Archer', but the vehicles were ultimately not placed
with new units of the artillery.
and were scrapped and this vehicle and the one in Overloon survived.

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■ Information obtained from several sites.
■ Wikipedia
■ tanks-encyclopedia
■ the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Panzers
■ preservedtanks
■ pantser.net
■ the.shadock.free.fr/Tanks_in_France

■ Some music is from the YouTube Audio Library.

■ Music used:
EpidemicSound.com

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