After the withdrawal from Greece, while some elements of the division were evacuated back to Alexandria, the majority of the 6th Division was sent to Crete where they were cobbled together to form a hasty garrison. The 19th Brigade had been landed intact with all of its infantry battalions, while only elements of the 16th and 17th Brigades had been landed and these two were combined together to form composite battalions. In addition to the infantry, two of the division's field artillery units, the &lt;a href="2/2nd%20Field%20Regiment%20%28Australia%29"&gt;2/2nd&lt;/a&gt; and 2/3rd Field Regiments had also been landed. They had both lost all of their equipment in Greece and as a result the 2/2nd were thrown into the line as infantry, while the 2/3rd were hastily re-equipped with 14 captured French and Italian artillery pieces. On 20 May, the Germans launched an airborne assault on the island and over the course of a week-and-a-half heavy fighting ensued around Maleme airfield, Heraklion, Canea, and Retimo during which heavy casualties were inflicted upon the Germans before, having exhausted their ammunition and lacking air support, the garrison was evacuated back to Egypt close to the end of the month. As in Greece, a large number of men were unable to be evacuated and as a result many 6th Division personnel, including the majority of the &lt;a href="2/1st%20Battalion%20%28Australia%29"&gt;2/1st&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="2/7th%20Battalion%20%28Australia%29"&gt;2/7th&lt;/a&gt; and 2/11th Battalions, were taken prisoner. A great deal of equipment was also lost. During the fighting, the 2/7th Infantry Battalion, fighting alongside the New Zealand 28th (Maori) Battalion, undertook a bayonet charge at a position known as 42nd Street that was later described as "one of the epics of the war", which resulted in about 300 Germans being killed. The fighting on Crete added a further 274 killed, 507 wounded and 3,102 captured to the division's casualty list.