page_title: M2 medium tank
section_title: Service
hierarchical_section_title: M2 medium tank / Service
caption_attribution_description: English: M3 Lee medium tank, Fort Knox. Maintenance of mechanized equipment. Tanks, as well as the Army's trucks, motorcycles and other motorized equipment, pay regular visits to the wash rack. Wherever possible, modern military vehicles are kept in spic and span condition and mechanically ready for strenuous action.
context_page_description: The M2 medium tank, officially medium tank, M2, was a United States Army medium tank that was first produced in 1939 by the Rock Island Arsenal, just prior to the commencement of the Second World War in Europe. Production was 18 M2 tanks, and 94 slightly improved M2A1 tanks, for a total of 112. Events in Western Europe rapidly demonstrated that the M2 was obsolete, and it was never used overseas in combat; it was, however, used for training purposes throughout the war.
  The M2's features included an unusually large number of machine guns, bullet deflector plates, and sloped armor on the hull front. The main armament was a 37 mm gun, with 32 mm armor; the M2A1 had a 51 mm gun mantlet. Some features of the M2 series, especially the suspension and powertrain, provided the basis for later, important U.S. tank designs including the M3 Lee, M4 Sherman and other armored fighting vehicles.
context_section_description: The M2 was already obsolete when it entered service. It compared poorly with contemporary European tanks, such as the French S-35 and German Panzer III. The 37 mm (1.5 in) main armament of the M2 was equivalent to the 37 mm (1.5 in) the Panzer III, 47 mm (1.9 in) S-35 had more powerful guns. By 1941, the Germans had begun upgrading their Panzer III with a 50 mm (2.0 in) L/42 gun, and the Soviets had fielded the vastly superior T-34, with a 76 mm (3.0 in) gun and a sloped 52 mm (2.0 in) glacis plate. Given this, the M2 was essentially a stopgap measure until more capable tanks like the M3 Lee and M4 Sherman came along in 1942-43. The ordnance office recommended in January 1942 that the M2 should only be used for training purposes, and they were never sent overseas to combat areas. The U.S. Army fielded the M2 and M2A1 with the 67th Infantry Regiment (medium tanks) and, subsequently, the 1st Armored Division's 69th Armored Regiment during intensive training maneuvers in the United States in 1941, and the M2 design continued to prove useful in a basic training role for tank crewmen. The trained crewmen from the 69th Armored were reassigned to provide cadres to new armored units as U.S. forces were rapidly expanded from 1942-1944.
  The need for a new medium tank to match the German Panzer IV's 75 mm turret gun (2.95 inches) led to the development of the M3 Lee, designed first to mount a 75 mm (2.95) gun in the right sponson. This configuration had been tested on an M2; the experimental vehicle was designated T5E2.
caption: An M3 medium tank, the successor to the M2
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