During the 1930s, the Janesville National Guard armory served as headquarters for the 32nd Tank Company, part of Wisconsin's famed Thirty-Second Division, which had been reorganized after World War I and equipped with light tanks. In November 1940, under the mobilization ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the unit was combined with three other Midwestern National Guard units and redesignated Company A of the 192nd Tank Battalion. Within a year, the Janesville tank company had been trained and sent to the Philippine Islands. After the outbreak of war on December 7, 1941, members of Company A became the first of 330,000 Wisconsin residents to engage the enemy. During a harrowing four-month defense of the Bataan Peninsula, lacking supplies and air cover, the Janesville tank unit fought alongside other American and Filipino forces until surrendering on April 9, 1942. As prisoners of war, the Janesville men took part in the Bataan Death March. Of the original ninety-nine members of the unit, only thirty-five survived imprisonment by the Japanese.