In December 1940, after the threat of invasion of the United Kingdom had diminished, the decision was made to transfer the Australian units based there to the Middle East and subsequently the battalion was dispatched to Egypt, sailing aboard the transport "Empress of Canada". Sailing via South Africa to avoid the more dangerous waters of the Mediterranean, they disembarked at Alexandria on 31 December and then made camp at Ikingi Maryut. In March, the battalion's medium machine gun section and anti-aircraft platoon provided support to the &lt;a href="2/9th%20Battalion%20%28Australia%29"&gt;2/9th Battalion&lt;/a&gt; during its attack on the Italian garrison at Giarabub. The battalion as a whole subsequently saw action at Tobruk between May and August along with the rest of the 18th Brigade, before being relieved by a Polish unit and evacuated by sea to Alexandria in August 1941 aboard the destroyer HMS "Jackal". After this, the battalion moved to Biet Jirja and then Kilo 89, in Palestine, where they undertook further training until late September. Following the completion of the Syria-Lebanon campaign, the battalion was assigned to Syria to undertake garrison duties, being based initially around Aleppo and then Djerablous, on the banks of the Euphrates near the Turkish border. Other outposts were established around Idlib, El Hamman, Meidane Ekbes, Azaz, and Radjou.