In mid-1942, by which time the support group had been disbanded, the 251st Brigade was detached and the rest of the division was shipped to join the Tenth Army and served in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

The closest the rest of the division came to combat was in April 1944 when it was rushed to Egypt to crush a mutiny among the Greek 1st Infantry Brigade.

The tank regiments received M4 Shermans in November 1943, thought to be in preparation for a transfer to Italy, which never came about and only drove them in Iraq, Syria and Egypt.

The 31 Armoured Division was re-established as part of the Indian Army in 1972.

[2] It was raised at Jhansi and remains headquartered there as part of XXI Corps.