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. ■ So want to help keep me and the channel going? supporting me on Patreon will get you access to extra content for three channels in total. ■ Support me on my Patreon  ■ Store: ■ Information obtained from several sites. ■ Wikipedia ■ tanks-encyclopedia ■ ■ preservedtanks ■ ■ ■ Some music is from the YouTube Audio Library. ■ Music used: Copyright fair use notice All media used in this video is used for the purpose of education under the terms of fair use. All footage and images used belong to their copyright holders.