The regiment participated in the Erwin Rommel's Operation Sonnenblume and the following Siege of Tobruk. As the regiment's L3/35 tankettes were useless Ariete division commander General Ettore Baldassarre demanded repeatedly to be sent &lt;a href="M13/40"&gt;M13/40&lt;/a&gt; tanks to re-equip the regiment's three "L" battalions or be sent "M" tank battalions. Ultimately the High Command in Rome settled on a plan to repatriate the men of the 32nd and retrain them at the 32nd's depot in Verona. Therefore the 4th Tank Infantry Regiment raised a new command company, which was transferred to Libya on 1 June 1941 and gave birth to the 132nd Tank Infantry Regiment on 1 September 1941 and in October the XIII Tank Battalion "M", raised by the 32nd regiment's depot in Verona, was transferred to the 31st Tank Infantry Regiment instead of being sent to Africa. After its activation the 132nd regiment received the three "M" battalions of its sister regiment, whose return to Italy was repeatedly postponed, until both regiments were heavily invested and decimated during the British Operation Crusader, fighting battles at Bir el Gubi on 19 November and 4-7 December and for Point 175 before retreating West.