In early February, acclimatisation training was conducted until the battalion's heavy equipment arrived in camp, including Bren carriers and trucks, when section level and platoon tactical training began. This increased in complexity and progressed to company-level exercises, culminating in battalion offensive manoeuvres. Leave was granted for the soldiers to visit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. This ceased mid-March, when the battalion was ordered to cross the Suez Canal and take up positions west of the port of Tobruk to complete training prior to relieving the 6th Division in the desert. As British troops advanced west, pushing the Italians back through Libya during Operation Compass, plans were made for the 9th Division to move forward. In the end, only part of the division advanced past Tobruk and, due to lack of transport, the 24th Brigade garrisoned the port itself. In early April the advance turned into a withdrawal as Axis forces, bolstered by the arrival of the Afrika Korps, which had landed around Tripoli, launched a determined counter-attack. The 9th Division, along with the Australian 18th Brigade, from the 7th Division, withdrew intact to Tobruk, and within a week the advancing Axis forces had placed the strategic port under siege. The 2/43rd would remain there, manning defences, mounting patrols and conducting raids, for the next six months.