Maletti Group

Maletti Group
Raggruppamento Maletti
Captured L3/35 and L3 cc tankettes outside Bardia, Libya 1941
Active	June–December 1940
Country	Italy
Branch	Army
Type	Mechanised
Size	6 infantry battalions 2 tank battalions
Engagements	Italian invasion of Egypt Operation Compass
Disbanded	December 1940
Commanders
General	Pietro Maletti  †

The Maletti Group (Raggruppamento Maletti) was an ad hoc mechanised unit formed by the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) in Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana or ASI), during the initial stages of the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The Italian army had three armoured divisions in Europe but all were needed for the occupation of Albania and the forthcoming invasion of Greece, which began on 28 October 1940. The Maletti Group was formed in June 1940, as part of the 10th Army (General Mario Berti) and contained all of the M11/39 medium tanks in Libya.

The medium tanks and tankettes already in the colony were to be combined with medium tanks sent from Italy, to form a new armoured division and a new headquarters, the Libyan Tank Command was established on 29 August. The Maletti Group participated in Operazione E, the Italian invasion of Egypt in 1940 and reached Sidi Barrani on 16 September. The group was destroyed at the Nibeiwa camp on 9 December, during Operation Compass, a British raid against the 10th Army positions inside Egypt. The rest of the command and tank units arriving in Libya were combined in the Babini Group which was also destroyed at the Battle of Beda Fomm (6–7 February 1941), the final defeat of the 10th Army, which led to the British occupation of Cyrenaica.

The 32nd Armoured Regiment was formed on 1 December 1938 and on 1 February 1939 became part of the 132nd Armoured Division Ariete, the second Italian armoured division. At the Italian declaration of war on June 11, 1940, the 32nd Armoured Regiment moved with the Ariete Division from Veneto to the border with France, as part of the Army of the Po but the war ended so quickly that the division was not used. On 28 July 1939, the I and II Medium Tank battalions received 96 Fiat M11/39 tanks to replace its Fiat 3000s. The inadequacies of the M11/39 tanks led to a decision on 26 October 1939, to replace them with M13/40 tanks and the first batch, built by Ansaldo at Genoa in October 1940, were used to equip the III Medium Tank Battalion with 37 of the new tanks.