[1][2] Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hector Bastin, training was completed at the Armoured Vehicles Fighting School,[3] before along with the rest of the 9th Division, the regiment was sent to the Middle East, arriving in Egypt in April 1941.

[4] Equipped with Vickers light tanks and Bren carriers, the regiment then saw action in Syria where it supported the 7th Division.

[1] In July 1942, the 9th Division was sent to help rectify the situation at El Alamein, where German and Italian troops were attacking.

[1][7] In early 1943, the regiment was returned to Australia where, in April, it began to reorganise on the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland in preparation for jungle fighting against the Japanese.

[1][4] At this time the Australian Army was undergoing a period of restructuring as its strategic focus shifted towards concentrating upon fighting the war against the Japanese in the Pacific.

In the end, however, it was over a year before the regiment saw action again, taking part in the landings at Tarakan, and in northern Borneo in mid-1945 in one of the final campaigns of the war.