Arriving in Greece

 <p>As we mentioned, the 1st Armoured Brigade and "half of the New Zealand Division had already arrived in Greece. The 16th Australian Brigade was the next to arrive. They arrived between 19 March and 22 March. The Australians had just been at Tobruk as the first group of men from Lustre Force had arrived at the Piraeus. The Australian 19th Brigade at this time was at Tocra. This was a location in the western part of Cyrenaica. The Australian 17th Brigade had been sitting west of Agedabia. The first move by the 16th Brigade was to travel to Mersa Matruh. It was at Mersa Matruh that they were given Thompson Submachine guns (a favorite weapon in America, both by police and gangsters. After leaving Mesa Matruh, they traveled to a favorite camp at Amiriya. They gave the men a short leave in Alexandria, which they appreciated greatly. During the night of 17 March, many men were still in Alexandria, when the word was known that were to leave on ships early in the morning. The British cruiser Gloucester carried the 2/3rd Battalion. The brigade headquarters and another two battalions were carried on merchantmen. The Gloucester travelled at high speed, leaving the merchant ships in their wake. They came to the Piraeus by 19 March. There were Italian aircraft in the Dodecanese Islands. Italian dive bombers attacked the merchant ships on 21 March. The Australians fired  on the divebombes with Bren guns and captured Italian Breda light anti-aircraft guns. This is based on the account in "Greece Crete and Syria" by Gavin Long.</p>