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"Berwick to Britain to Berlin to Brazil" The Story of Berwick AC&F M3A1 Stuart Light Tank Serial Number 10,309
M3A1 Light Tank, serial number 10,309, started it’s life being Manufactured at the Berwick American Car & Foundry Company Factory in December of 1942.
American Car & Foundry Company produced a total run of 4,621 of the M3A1 Light Tanks between its Berwick and St. Charles, Missouri factories. Continental W-670 gasoline engines powered 4,410 of the batch. Just 211 Guiberson T-1020 diesel engine powered M3A1s were produced, with all of those being made at the St. Charles, Missouri factory.
Many of the M3s and M3A1s were sent to allied nations through President Roosevelt’s Lend Lease Program. Great Britain received 1,594 M3A1s, including “Lady Lois”. 340 M3A1s also went to the Soviet Union. Lady Lois and all of the other M3A1s with gasoline W-670 Radial engines in British service were classified by the Commonwealth as the “Stuart III”. Guiberson Diesel powered M3A1s were classified as “Stuart IV”.
Image source: AC&F Archives
Based on our research, we believe Lady Lois was in British service in Italy during WWII.
That is all we currently know about her overseas wartime service.
“The tanks (16 M3A1s) formed part of a consignment gifted to Brazil by the U.S. Army between 1942 and 1945.
Original Wartime photo of M3s in Brazilian Service. Some 30 years ago, 40 of those remaining were sold as surplus to a Brazilian businessman who, although there wasn’t the interest in vintage military vehicles that there is now (and none at all in Brazil), recognized their potential as historical artifacts. In the intervening years, some were disposed, but in September 2007, Mike Stallwood, a renowned military vehicle dealer based in England, received a tip that there might be a sizeable number left. Within 10 days, he was on a plane to Brazil. There he discovered, on a remote ranch some 125 miles north of São Paulo, an amour eldorado…”
Some of the Stuart Tanks as found in Brazil in the mid 2000s by Mike Stallwood. “…On the spot, Mike committed to purchasing every tank that was still available, five M3s with nine-cylinder radial Guiberson diesel engines—which are very rare, only 1,285 were manufactured—and 11 M3A1s with seven-cylinder Continental radial engines.
But shaking hands on the deal is one thing, getting the tanks back to the UK is another. The folio of mandatory notarized and legalized paperwork was a full-inch thick and took almost a year to complete! And then came the logistic nightmare of actually moving the tanks. Mike is nothing if not hands-on and, in August 2008, flew out to Brazil with nothing in his luggage except loading straps and chains. There, in conditions that would give a UK health and safety person a fit, and with the help of a couple of farm laborers, a hired teleporter, much sweat and not a little blood, he loaded the 16 tanks (each of which weighs around 14 tons) plus 60 tons of associated spares into 10 containers.
Shipping delays meant that it wasn’t until October 17, 2008, that all the containers were safely unloaded in RR Motor Services yard and Mike could reflect on the operation. “I’m highly delighted. The more I look round these tanks, the more I realize that, apart from this being a personal coup and one of the biggest adventures of my life, I don’t think anyone is going to find 16 WWII tanks of this ilk again. The first two we’ve tried have run and I’m hopeful that the majority of these tanks will work without major surgery, but if it is necessary I have two spare diesel engines, 11 spare petrol engines, and tons of spares.”
In 2015 and 2016, the Stuart Tank Memorial Association was in contact with Mike Stallwood regarding the final M3A1 Stuart that he had recovered from Brazil. Mike was willing to sell the tank, a Berwick AC&F M3A1! A price was eventually settled upon and STMA finally became the owners of its very own Stuart Tank!
We would FINALLY be realizing the Goal and Dream of “Bringing Stuie Home” that founders Dave Kovach and Tom McLaughlin hoped to one day achieve when they started this project in the early 2000s.
In Spring of 2016, after months in transit across the Atlantic Ocean from England to Berwick, “Lady Lois” arrived at home once again in her birthplace! Two Special Celebrations were held: One at Cheetah Chassis in the former AC&F Complex where the tank was pulled out of its shipping container and another later at Reliance Fire Hall for the public to see the hometown hero!
  Above Left: A truck fron Cheetah Chassis pulls a non operational Lady Lois out of the shipping container that the tank was transported home from England in at the Welcome Home Event at Cheetah in 2016.
Above Right: Our M3A1 Light Tank sits outside soon after arriving home from England in Summer 2016. After many years of more fundraising and building up of both Berwick WWII Weekend and the Stuart Tank Museum, as well as some unfortunate delays due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, major Restoration Work on M3A1 Light Tank, serial number 10,309 finally began in late 2022! A majority of the work was done in-house by Volunteers! M3A1 Stuart Tank owner Steve Greenberg even lent his expertise to our Tank Committee to help with the project, making a number of trips from Oregon to Berwick over the last few years.
   Above left: One of the first priorities during restoration was checking the condition of the gearbox. It was in immaculate condition, especially considering how long it sat outside in Brazil!
Above Middle: The Continental W-670 that came in our tank was soon removed due to its condition and a replacement was sought. Above Right: The old engine sits on the custom built stand that Cheetah Chassis manufactured for us. After the event season in 2022, Restoration work kicked into full swing. Rear deck armor, hatches, the turret and fenders were all removed. The interior crew compartment was mostly stripped down. Both the interior and exterior were needle-scaled and/or wire wheeled to remove rust. The Continental W-670-9A engine was removed from the engine compartment and closely evaluated. At that point, it was determined that the clutch plates of the engine that came in the Tank when STMA purchased it were warped. Cost estimates for repair of the clutch plates were sought out. Unfortunately, the cost of the repairs was to be close to the same as another entire W-670 engine. Taking this into consideration as well as the fact that the engine that came in Lady Lois was already well used, the decision was made to purchase a new engine for the Tank. A NOS (New, Old Stock) engine was purchased. The NOS W-670 was installed in the spring of 2023. After some fine tuning by Steve Greenberg and the tank committee, the engine ran very well and sounded great.
     
Around the same time in 2023, Cheetah Chassis donated the labor of sandblasting and painting some of the major parts of our Tank, including the rear deck armor, the turret, hatches, and more! Fine tuning and interior work on Lady Lois continued through 2023 and into spring of 2024. In February 2024, a maintenance truck from Don Bower helped put one of the finishing touches on Lady Lois’ restoration by lifting the tank’s turret back into place on the hull! On April 14th, 2024, Lady Lois made her public debut after restoration in a parade from Berwick City Hall to the Museum! It was a very successful 4 mile round trip from our maintenance garage to the Museum and back! A huge crowd attended and welcomed the newly restored tank at the Museum! |
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You will notice that our tank lacks any unit markings that most other restored Tanks often have. We decided to restore the Tank to a paint scheme that it would have had when it came out of the Berwick AC&F factory. Plain Flat Olive Drab (OD) Green, paint code 33070. No markings other than a correct American Registration number for a December of 1942 production M3A1 Stuart (W - 3025312) and her nickname. We feel that restoring the Tank to the appearance it had when it came out of the American Car & Foundry Factory in 1942 is the most appropriate way to honor the 9135 workers from over 700 local municipalities who built the Light Tanks as well as the millions of Americans who served in the Armed Forces during the Second World War. Now that our Tank is restored, we are regularly taking it to various local events including our WWII Weekend and more to tell the story of the Stuart Tank, its crews and its builders.
Contact us if you are interested in having our M3A1 Stuart Light Tank attend your event!
If any information is inaccurate in the story of M3A1 Light Tank Serial Number 10,309, please let us know with sources on how we can correct it!
Sources:
- “Stuart: A History of the American Light Tank, Volume 1” by R.P. Hunnicutt
- “Legends of Warfare, Ground: Stuart Tank, Vol. 1 and 2” by David Doyle
- “The Berwick A.C.F. in World War II” by the Columbia County Historical Society
- "The Armed Forces of A.C.F."
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You can see Lady Lois on the move at Berwick WWII Weekend every year! |
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You can even take a ride in the turret of our M3A1 Light Tank for a donation at certain events!
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