An M2A2 of the 29th Tank Company: An Interwar Period Multi-Turreted Tank of the Virginia National Guard

I am not only a reference archivist, but also a U.S. Army veteran. I served as an M1A1 Abrams and M551 Sheridan armor crewman in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and the Opposing Forces (OPFOR) at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, CA in 1996-1998. As a tanker in the OPFOR, I participated in large-scale maneuver warfare exercises against rotational training units to prepare soldiers to engage and defeat near-peer adversaries in future conflicts.

My current and former occupations rarely intersect, so it came as a pleasant surprise when I found two photos of an unusual tank in the records of the Department of Military Affairs at the Library of Virginia. The Department “provides professional and responsive state support functions to the Adjutant General of Virginia, the Virginia National Guard, and the Virginia Defense Force in order to ensure their ability to support and defend the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia.” The Department’s records at the Library offer insight into 250 years of military history.¹

I recognized the tank in the photos as an Interwar Period M2A2 Light Tank. The Interwar Period lasted from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II. Multi-turreted tanks like the M2A2 were a design fad of the time, popular in the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union. In theory capable of engaging multiple targets simultaneously, the M2A2 was equipped with .30 caliber machine guns in its front hull and its right turret and a .50 caliber machine gun in its left turret.²

A look through the Interwar Unit Files of the Virginia National Guard told the story of this tank and its unit. A total of 235 M2A2s were built, and production began with serial number U.S.A. W 30110. Serial number U.S.A. W 30193 indicates that this tank was an early production vehicle, and the unit markings indicate that it was assigned to the 29th Tank Company.³

The 29th Tank Company was a part of the 29th Infantry Division of the Army National Guard and was based at the Armory in Danville, Virginia. Known as “Danville’s Best,” the company was formed in 1922 and was equipped with 7 M1917 tanks, near copies of French Renault FT tanks license-built in the U.S. in 1917-1919. By 1933 the tanks were obsolete and inoperable.⁴

Tankers spend most their time on maintenance, and I understand the difficulties of working on a tank past its projected service life. M551 Sheridans were built in 1966-1970 and were not replaced until 2003. Unfortunately for my predecessors, the Great Depression and the spirit of isolationism imposed severe limits on tank production, and the 29th Tank Company did not receive a new tank until 1937.⁵ The single replacement tank is likely the one pictured in the photos. Restrictions were placed on its use due to a lack of spare parts and repair facilities.⁶

The 29th Tank Company was reequipped with M2A2s in 1938, and the tanks were a familiar sight in Danville and Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Fort Meade, Maryland, as the U.S. prepared to enter World War II.⁷ Army National Guard tank companies were federalized in the build-up of 1940-1941, and the 29th Tank Company was re-designated Company C, 191st Tank Battalion. Many new formations – though not the 191st – trained at the Desert Training Center south of today’s NTC. Re-equipped with M4 Sherman tanks, the battalion fought in North Africa and Italy in 1943, in France in 1944, and in Germany in 1945.⁸

Multi-turreted tanks like the M2A2 failed in practice. A single turret meant a single unlimited traverse and field of fire, and multiple turrets meant multiple limited traverses and fields of fire. Coordinating the firing of multiple turrets proved to be difficult, if not impossible. No M2A2s saw combat, and almost all of them were scrapped or expended as targets on live fire ranges. The only known survivor, serial number U.S.A. W 30211, was restored for static display and is in the collection of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby.⁹

The records of the Department of Military Affairs are accessible to the public in the Library of Virginia’s Archives Research Room.