The oldest surviving M3 Lee medium tank. VFW post 745, Newark DE

The M3 was an early WW2 U.S. medium tank. Initially rolling off the production line at the Detroit Arsenal in July, 1941, the tank went on to serve in North Africa with both the Americans and the British, and it was also supplied in significant numbers to the U.S.S.R. It was produced in two slightly different variants, the "lee" and the "Grant," with the Grant being modified according to British specifications.

While the M3 Lee/Grant was soon superseded by the far superior M4 Sherman, some vehicles fought on in the Pacific and in India and Burma until the later stages of the war. (I have another video on a surviving example of an M3 Grant that was disabled during the battle of Kohima and left in place since 1944. Stay tuned!)

The vehicle in Newark Delaware is serial number 2, which was the first example produced by Chrysler, and the first to be completed at the Detroit Arsenal, even before the factory itself was fully built. (source: https://usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/Chrysler/chryslerwarrenm3tankphotos.htm) The vehicle was never sent overseas.

Around a decade later, the tank was sent to the (now closed) Chrysler plant in Newark DE, and appears in a newsreel about the then brand new M48 Patton, which was mass produced in Newark. Here's the newsreel: https://youtu.be/T2yRjP36POc (The M3 appears at 6:40).

The vehicle remained at the Chrysler plant until at least the 1960s, before being set up as a monument in front of VFW post 745, where it's been all my life. (Source: http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Lee_Grant.pdf)

I visited it a few times as kid when I was becoming interested in armored vehicles, but I had no idea that this specific example was such an important and unique piece of history until quite recently.