 Complete the following phrase:  About 500 men from the 24th were evacuated by sea to Crete, arriving on 27 April. After the Germans launched an airborne invasion of the strategically important island on 20 May, the 24th fought around Heraklion airfield, being temporarily detached to the British 14th Infantry Brigade. During the initial landing, the German paratroopers attacking the airfield were repulsed, but they successfully managed to establish a strong foothold around the Allied position, and after heavy fighting the battalion was withdrawn from town, being taken off the Heraklion mole aboard several British destroyers as the island fell to the Germans. During the evacuation several of the warships that carried the 24th were subjected to heavy aerial attack, and several from the battalion were killed or wounded. After arriving in Alexandria, the battalion was rebuilt in Palestine, making up its losses from the earlier campaigns from new reinforcements in Palestine. In the wake of the 