U.S. Medium Tank Regiment 1939 & the Fate of Interwar Tank Units

Battle Order
Jul 25
6 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

The 1 October 1939 organization of an Infantry Regiment, Medium Tanks based on George Nafziger's Collection of TO&Es.

This is the theoretical organization of the U.S. Army's Infantry Regiment, Medium Tanks based on George Nafziger's collection of digitized TO&Es. Before the creation of the Armored Force as a quasi-branch in 1940, mechanized forces were split between the Infantry Branch (which was officially responsible for the "tank") and the Cavalry Branch.

The presented structure, ranks of commanding officers, and vehicle counts are strictly the TO&E standard and not the strength of a specific unit. However, I've added in the heraldry, company guidons, and activation information specific to the 67th Infantry Regiment (Medium Tanks) because it was the only such unit on the books. Keep in mind though that for most of the 1930s Company F was the only active unit, with 2d Battalion HQ and Company D only being activated in October 1939 after the German invasion of Poland. The rest of the regiment was not activated until 5 June 1940 after the German invasion of France, after which it was rapidly reorganized as the 67th Armored Regiment (Medium) under the 2d Armored Division in July 1940.

The Infantry Regiment, Medium Tanks consisted of the following (with archived links to the appropriate Nafziger entry and activation information based on Steven Clay's "U.S. Army Order of Battle 1919–1941" series):

Regimental HQ & Band — Unorganized 31 October 1932—4 April 1936. Organized as a Regular Army Inactive unit with Organized Reserve personnel 4 April 1936 at Columbus, GA. Activated 5 June 1940 at Fort Benning, GA.
Regimental HQ Company
3× Infantry Battalions, Medium Tanks — 1st and 3d Battalion inactive in the 1930s. 2d Battalion less Company F inactivated 15 September 1931 at Camp Meade. 2d Battalion and Company D activated 1 October 1939 at Fort Benning, GA. Remainder of regiment activated 5 June 1940 at Fort Benning, GA.
- HQ & HQ Company
- 3× Infantry Companies, Medium Tanks
Maintenance Infantry Company — Activated 5 June 1940 at Fort Benning, GA.
Attached Medical
Attached Chaplain

↓ Types Interwar U.S. Tank Units

Just before the creation of the Armored Force there 4 major types of tank and mechanized units in the U.S. Army:

Infantry Regiment (Medium Tanks) — In reality, only Company F, 67th Infantry Regiment (Medium Tanks) for almost the entire 1930s. Company D and HHC, 2nd Battalion of the 67th Infantry were also activated on 1 October 1939 (Clay, Vol 1, p. 404).
Infantry Regiment (Light Tanks) — In reality included the 66th Infantry Regiment (Light Tanks) which had 3 fully active light tank battalions. However, the were dispersed between Camp Meade (1st Bn), Fort Benning (2d Bn) and Camp Devens (3d Bn) and the Regimental HHC was inactive from 1938-1940. There were also the 68th and 69th Infantry Regiments (Light Tanks), but these were inactive with Organized Reserve personnel (Clay, Vol 1, p. 403-405).
Divisional Light Tank Companies (Infantry) — Included 8 Active in the Regular Army (1st to 7th Divisions + Hawaiian Division) and 18 Active in the National Guard (although most NG ones only had a 2 tanks for training out of an 18-tank paper strength) (Cameron, p. 127-132). The Cavalry Divisions had a Light Tank Company TO&E'd to them as well, although these were all Regular Army Inactive units with only Organized Reserve personnel (likely all officers).
7th Cavalry Brigade (Mechanized), which in theory was meant to have 112 combat cars within its organization (Clay, Vol 2, p. 594). The cavalry used the term for light tanks because "tanks" were the legal responsibility of the Infantry Branch.
Separate Combat Car Squadron at Fort Riley, KS, which was formed in early 1940 and began to be equipped with a limited number of combat cars in March 1940. Its personnel contributed to the new 1st Armored Division when it was formed ("Historical and Pictorial Review, 69th Armored Regiment (M), First Armored Division of the United States Army").

↓ Fate of the Interwar Tank Units

Update 25 July 2025: I've added information regarding the 28th Tank Company's (PA) conversion kindly provided to me by Aaron Heft, Historian for the 28th Infantry Division Association.

When the U.S. Army raised its Armored Force in 1940, the interwar tank/mechanized units in the Regular Army were used to create the initial 1st Armored Division, 2d Armored Division, and 70th Tank Battalion (Cameron, p. 264). The National Guard Divisional Light Tank Companies meanwhile were mostly used to create independent Tank Battalions.

The below table chronicles what happened to the major interwar tank and mechanized units.

Appendix 1: 44th Tank Company

Appendix 2: 41st Tank Company to Co D, 803d Tank Destroyer Bn

This is based on documents uploaded by tankdestroyer.net

Lineage information regarding the 41st Tank Company

41st Tank Company was reorganized and redesignated Company C, 103d Antitank Battalion on 17 September 1940 (Malde, p. D). The remainder of the battalion was formed from Troop B, 24th Cavalry Regiment (WA) (Lough).
Co C, 103d Antitank Battalion was reorganized redesignated Co C, 103d Infantry Battalion, Antitank on 24 July 1941.
Co C, 103d Infantry Battalion, Antitank was converted and redesignated as Co C, 803d Tank Destroyer Battalion on 15 December 1941.
This unit departed New York on 5 August 1942, arrived in England on 17 August 1942, North Africa on 31 March 1943, Italy on 8 February 1944, and Hampton Roads on 31 July 1945 (Stanton p. 336). It was inactivated on 1 December 1945 at Camp Kilmer, NJ.
After the war, 803d Tank Destroyer Battalion was reorganized as an element of the 803d Tank Battalion (briefly officially a Heavy Tank Battalion), which was redesignated as 303d Armor under CARS (see 303d Armor lineage information). Note that this was unrelated to the 303d Cavalry constituted in 1968 and 803d Armor constituted in 1974. The lineages of 303d Armor and 803d Armor were consolidated in 1993. The lineages of 303d Armor and 303d Cavalry were consolidated on 1 September 2005 as 303d Cavalry. This unit exists as of time of writing (2025) as 1st Squadron, 303d Cavalry Regiment of the 96th Troop Command.

Appendix 3: 28th Tank Company to Troop D, 104th Cavalry

The 28th Tank Company was converted to Troop D, 104th Cavalry (Horse-Mechanized) at midnight on 23 Sepember 1940.

According to information provided to me by Aaron Heft of the 28th Infantry Division Association:

28th Tank Company was reorganized and redesignated Troop D, 104th Cavalry Regiment on 23 Dec 1940 (I think the discrepancy in dates can be explained by typical lag time between physical reorganization processes and formal reflagging for lineage purposes)
Troop D, 104th Cavalry Regiment was called into active Federal service with the rest of the 104th Cavalry on 17 February 1941
Troop D, 104th Cavalry Regiment was redesignated Troop E (Support), 104th Cavalry Regiment, Mechanized on 1 April 1942
Troop E (Support), 104th Cavalry, Mechanized was redesignated Troop D, 104th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized when that conversion happened
The unit arrived in France on 4 March 1945
Post-war the unit was reorganized as Heavy Tank Company, 111th Infantry Regiment in Norristown on 9 April 1947. At the time each Infantry Regiment had its own Tank Company.
The original 28th Tank Company's lineage is currently carried by HHC, 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment at Plymouth Meeting, PA. As of time of writing (2025) this is a Stryker infantry battalion part of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division.

↓ Sources

Cameron, Robert S. "Mobility, shock, and firepower : the emergence of the U.S. Army’s armor branch". A section on Infantry Tank Organization in the 1930s is from pages 127 to 132
Clay, Steven's "U.S. Army Order of Battle 1919–1941" series, particularly Volume 1 (Major Commands and Infantry Organizations) and Volume 2 (Cavalry, Field Artillery, and Coast Artillery, 1919–41)
"Historical and Pictorial Review, 69th Armored Regiment (M), First Armored Division of the United States Army"
Stanton, Shelby. "Order of Battle U.S. Army, World War II". Armored Regiments start on page 286 and independent Tank Battalions start page 296
Nafziger's digitization of TO&Es, 1939-1940. Ctrl+F "Medium Tank " to find the relevent ones or use the archived links at the beginning of this article.