M2 Medium Tank
In service 1939 - 1942
A bristling machine-gun fortress, obsolete before it was finished, that gave America the Lee's chassis.
Built byRock Island Arsenal
Development history
The M2 Medium reflected 1930s American thinking: many machine guns in sponsons for suppressing infantry, a small 37 mm gun, and riveted armour. The fall of France made it instantly obsolete, and the order for a thousand was cancelled in favour of a 75 mm-armed derivative - the M3 Lee - which reused the M2's hull, engine and suspension. The 112 built served only as training vehicles, but the industrial groundwork they laid mattered enormously.