About 500 men from the 2/4th 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 2/4th 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managed to establish a strong foothold around the Allied position, and after heavy fighting the battalion was withdrawn from town, being taken off the Heraklion mole aboard several British destroyers as the island fell to the Germans.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 2/4th 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 Syria–Lebanon campaign, the battalion deployed to Syria as part of the Allied occupation force established there to defend against a possible German invasion through the Caucasus. They remained there until January 1942, enduring a cold and snowy winter. In the middle of the month, the 19th Brigade moved to Palestine, and from there the 2/4th embarked upon the troopship HMT "Rajula" at Port Tewfik, for the return to Australia, following Japan's entry into the war. Sailing via Colombo, they arrived in Fremantle in mid-March 1942, before proceeding on to Port Adelaide.