In late 1940, Britain's Army of the Nile successfully repulsed an Italian attempt to invade Egypt, pushing them back to Benghazi in Libya. To support this drive, Hurricane fighters had been ferried crated to the Gold Coast in West Africa by HMS "Furious", assembled there, and then flown across Africa to Egypt. This British initiative came to a halt in early 1941 when troops were diverted to Greece for Operation Lustre to counter the Axis invasion there. As British troops were being removed from Africa, the Axis significantly strengthened their presence there. This enabled German General Erwin Rommel to begin the push of his Afrika Korps toward Egypt that was not stopped until late 1942 at El Alamein..