The regiment is part of the Italian Army's infantry corps' Bersaglieri speciality and was last operationally assigned to the Armored Division "Ariete".

After the Axis forces had retreated into Tunisia the division fought in thee Tunisian campaign, during which it was destroyed in May 1943.

In 1977 the regiment's flag and traditions were assigned to the 14th Bersaglieri Battalion "Sernaglia", which was a recruits training unit of the Armored Division "Ariete".

In 1895-96 the regiment provided 17 officers and 451 troops to help form the I, II, IV, and V provisional battalions, which were deployed to Eritrea for the First Italo-Ethiopian War.

In January 1915 the depot of the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment in San Remo formed the XLVI and XLVII battalions.

[1][3] On 18 November 1917, the XLVII Battalion, which had suffered heavy casualties during the retreat to the Piave was disbanded and its remaining personnel assigned to the 19th Bersaglieri Regiment.

In June 1918, the V Bersaglieri Brigade fought in the Second Battle of the Piave River on Monte Valbella on the Asiago plateau.

In October 1917 the brigade fought in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, during which the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment managed to cross the Piave river and break the Austro-Hungarian Army's front at Sernaglia after five days of brutal combat.

[1][3][5] After World War I the Royal Italian Army reduced its forces and in 1919 the V Cyclists Battalion was disbanded.

Already in July of the same year the regimental command and XXIV Battalion returned to the armistice line on Italy's new Eastern border with the newly formed state of Yugoslavia.

The same year the regiment reformed the XXIV Auto-transported Battalion, while the XII was reorganized as a motorcyclists unit.

[1][7] In summer 1940 the 131st Armored Division "Centauro" was transferred to Albania for the upcoming Italian attack on Greece, which commenced on 28 October 1940.

In November 1942 the regimental command, together with the XIV and XXII battalions, was airlifted to Libya for the Western Desert Campaign.

In early January 1943 the entire regiment assembled in Ghannouch in Southern Tunisia, where it was soon joined by the rest of the Centauro.

Over the next months the division participated in the Tunisian campaign and fought in the battles of Kasserine Pass, Mareth Line, and El Guettar.

On 13 May 1943, Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered and the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment was declared lost due to wartime events.

Already on 14 March 1977 the President of the Italian Republic Giovanni Leone had issued decree 173, which assigned the flag and traditions of the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment to the battalion.

Consequently the Armored Division "Ariete" was disbanded on 1 October 1986 and the battalion was transferred to the Northwestern Military Region.

With the end of the Cold War the Italian Army began to draw down its forces and on 30 December 1989 the 14th Bersaglieri Battalion "Sernaglia" was disbanded, while the flag of the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment had already been transferred to the Shrine of the Flags in the Vittoriano in Rome ten days earlier on 20 December 1989.