Ariete Division

Italy’s best armored division - and one of the finest fighting formations of World War II - moved to North Africa in early 1941 and spent the next year and a half in constant combat against the British and Commonwealth armies across Libya and Egypt. Ariete amassed an awesome combat record despite its inadequate tanks, weak artillery and general lack of motor vehicles.

Ariete Division is a set of 165 pieces for the Panzer Grenadier game system, showing the entire division as it stood in the summer of 1942.

At that time the division included:

• Three battalions of tanks, with a mixture of the M13/40 and the newer and slightly improved M14/41.
  
• Two truck-mounted Bersaglieri (light infantry) battalions. Each would include six Bersaglieri platoons, two HMG platoons and three 47mm anti-tank platoons in game terms, plus 11 trucks to carry them.
  
• One heavy weapons battalion, shown by three 20mm anti-aircraft batteries, three HMG platoons and three 81mm mortar platoons, hauled by nine trucks in game terms.
  
• One "cavalry" tank battalion, represented by seven L6/40 light tanks. .
  
• One battalion of armored cars, with eight of the excellent AB 41 platoons shown here.
  
• Two light artillery battalions, each with three 75/27 artillery units and three trucks to pull them.
  
• One medium battalion of three 105mm batteries, pulled by three more trucks.
  
• A heavy anti-aircraft group with two 88mm batteries, again moved by trucks.