VANADIUM, niobium, and tantalum are three transition elements with relatively large electronic specific heats; they are also supercondfictors. Interest in their low temperature expansion properties, therefore, lies in the fact that not only should useful information be obtained about their lattice dynamics but also about the electronic component of thermal expansion, and hence about their band structure and superconducting properties. This latter information may then be compared with that obtained from measurements of the pressure dependence of the critical field, ~-3 variation of elastic moduli at the superconducting transition, 4 and isothermal length changes between normal and superconducting states. 5 The optical leve~ technique used by Olsen and his collaborators for measuring these small isothermal length changes has recently been modified to allow thermal expansion data to be obtained at low temperatures, and Andres 6 has published data on electronic and lattice components of thermal expansion for tantalum and niobium at liquid helium temperatures in addition to data on aluminium, magnesium, tungsten, and lead. We have previously reported similar data obtained on copper, iron, 7 aluminium, palladium, chromium, s and normal and superconducting lead 9 using the three-terminal capacitance method ~Β° which is of similar high sensitivity to the optical lever method of Olsen et al. 5 In view of the interest in the thermodynamics of the 'hard' superconductors vanadium, niobium, and tantalum, this paper reports expansion data obtained on these three elements using the capacitance method. These data are preliminary in the sense that further measurements on samples of very high purity are desirable, although such samples of suitable size are not likely to be available in the very near future. Also, further accurate measurements at higher temperatures are needed to elucidate the behaviour of the lattice component of the expansion coefficient % and the Grueneisen parameter yg in more detail. Here 7g is taken