In 1924, the unit converted from cavalry into armor, receiving its first tanks, and becoming the 40th Tank Company. In 1934, the company deployed again to San Francisco due to the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike. In February 1941, as Company C, 194th Tank Battalion, the unit was activated for training at Fort Lewis, Washington; later that year in September, the battalion was deployed to the Philippines. When the United States was drawn into World War II by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, from December 1941 until April 1942, the battalion fought against Japanese forces. The company conducted a fighting withdrawal in Southern Luzon; then it fought on Bataan until they were ordered to surrender. As prisoners of war (POW), soldiers of the unit suffered through the Bataan Death March, and were later sent individually to various POW camps throughout the territories controlled by Japan; following the surrender of Japan, surviving soldiers returned to the United States in mid-September 1945.