Before leaving for Egypt, the division exchanged brigades with the 1st Armoured Division. Since the brigade received in exchange consisted of only one armoured regiment, division strength was reduced to three armoured regiments. Upon arriving in Egypt in December 1940, the division was further reduced in order to provide support for Operation Lustre, an expeditionary force to Greece. The detached units included two-thirds of the division's tanks, a battalion of infantry, and artillery support. The remnants of the division then moved to the province of Cyrenaica in Italian Libya, which had been conquered during Operation Compass. The division's remaining tanks were worn-out; they were supplemented by captured Italian models that were equally decrepit. In March, a German-Italian counter-attack led to the destruction of the division, and the ejection of the British from Cyrenaica, except for Tobruk. The consensus of historians is that there was little the division could have done to prevent this, given the circumstances of its being under equipped, poorly supplied, lacking proper training, and having inadequate communications and an unclear chain of command.