 Complete the following phrase:  After training on 18-pounders and 4.5 howitzers, the regiment was equipped with 25-pound artillery pieces in early 1941. During the 9th Divisions early involvement in the fighting in North Africa, the 28th was used to defend Mersa Matruh  a strategically important railhead on the Egyptian coast, lying between the ports of Tobruk and Alexandria  between May and September 1941, before moving to Sidi Barrani. In October 1941, they were moved to Palestine, before being sent to Syria in January 1942 to join the Allied garrison that had been established their following the defeat of the Vichy French forces there during the SyriaLebanon Campaign. They remained there, establishing a position around Jdaidet on the SyriaLebanon border to defend against a possible German invasion, until July 1942 when the 9th Division was hurriedly transferred to El Alamein, after the 