The Valentine tank presented to the Canadian War Museum in 1992 has a very interesting history. As a result of Hitler's surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviets lost large numbers of military weapons and vehicles. Of the 1,420 Valentine tanks produced in Canada, 1,390 were sent from this country to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease arrangements.

The Canadian War Museum's Valentine tank is No. 838, built in May 1943. It was shipped to Russia where it was allocated to the 57th Regiment of the 5th Guards Tank Army. That regiment lost a large number of tanks, including Canadian built Valentines, during the battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. Valentine No. 838 was lost during a Soviet counter-offensive on January 25th, 1944 in Ukraine. The battle was one of a series of counter-attacks by the Red Army against the German Wehnnacht that winter. Two Valentine tanks were among those in an initial assault over the ice at a former bridge crossing across the swampy river. The first tank was successful in crossing the ice, but the second, No. 838, went through the ice and was lost. Its three-man crew escaped. The tank rested in the bog near the village of Telepino, about 180 kilometres south of Kyiv, until the summer of 1990. A 74-year old villager remembered it going down. To mark the new era of "glasnost," the tank was retrieved intact with the help of six tractors and two power winches. It was offered to Canada, and the Canadian War Museum accepted it on behalf of Canada. This tank is one of two surviving Canadian-built Valentines in the world. Its nameplate reads: VALENTINE VII-A, VICKERS-ARMSTRONG DESIGN, BUILT BY CANADIAN-PACIFIC RAILWAY.

Valentine tanks bound for the Soviet Union being loaded on CPRflat bed cars at the Angus Shops, Montreal, Quebec, 29 December 1941.