132nd Ariete Armoured Division
The Ariete Armoured Division was formed on 1 February 1939, in Milan from the core of the 2nd Armoured Brigade. The divisions initially comprised the 8th Bersaglieri Regiment, the 32nd Tank Regiment (equipped with L3 light tanks and a few M11/39 medium tanks), the 132nd Artillery Regiment, and additional divisional support units.
At the start of the Second World War the division was located in Verona and acted as a reserve unit during the French Campaign.
Later that year, some battalions from the 32nd Tank Regiment (the I and II battalions M11/39 Medium tanks and the III and V battalions M13/40 Medium tanks) were shipped to Libya to become part of the Special Armoured Brigade belonging to Marshal Rodlfol Graziani's 10th Army. During some fierce and protraced fighting from December 1940 to February 1941, the British Western Desert Force overran the 10th Army, occupying the whole of Cyrenaica and threatening the Italian hold on their Northern African possessions.
On 24 January 1941, the remainder of the Ariete landed in Tripoli and, on 31 March, saw its first action during General Erwin Rommel's first desert offensive, playing a decisive part in the Battle of El Mechili. From February 1941 to November 1942, the Ariete Division took part in the North Africa campaign attached to the Italian 20th Motorised Corps. It was reinforced in 1941 by the 132nd Tank Regiment, which later completely replaced the 32nd, disbanded in mid-1942.
The 132nd Tank Regiment's battalions (initially the VII, VIII and IX, the former two later replaced by the X and XIII) came equipped with M13/40 or M14/41 medium tanks, and, starting in early 1942, with Semovente 75/18 battalions from the 132nd Artillery Regiment.
The division maintained its excellent combat record in Libya and Egypt, overrunning several Allied units during Operation Crusader. It took part in Rommel's second desert offensive and took part in the battles around El Alamein. During the Second Battle of El Alamein, the Arietelost approximately 120 of its tanks in the attempt to counter the British offensive and cover the withdrawal of the Germans. Its gallantry gained the respect and praise of both the British Commonwealth forces and the Afrika Korps.
On 4 November 1942, at about 15:30, the last few surviving tanks, surrounded by an overwhelmingly superior force, broadcast their last message, "Enemy tanks broke through South of Ariete Division. Ariete thus surrounded, located 5kms northwest of Bir-el-Abd. Ariete tanks keep on fighting!"
They were destroyed to the last tank. On 21 November 1942, the Division was disbanded, but its name was kept by a task force assembling its remnants (along with the survivors from the Trieste Infantry Division and Littorio Armoured Division) into a fighting unit.
Ariete Tactical Group kept fighting throughout the long retreat and subsequent battles in Tunisia, and was later forced to surrender along with the whole Axis Army in North Africa.
