Maletti Group

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

The Maletti Group (Italian: Raggruppamento Maletti) was an ad hoc mechanised unit formed by the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) in Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, ASI), during the initial stages of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. 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 Raggruppamento Maletti 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 Raggruppamento Maletti 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.