No Royal Air Force (RAF) units were based permanently at Crete until April 1941, but airfield construction had begun, radar sites built and stores delivered. On 30 April 1941 Major-General Bernard Freyberg, who had been evacuated from Greece with the 2nd New Zealand Division, was appointed commander-in-chief on Crete. He noted the acute lack of heavy weapons, equipment, supplies and communication facilities. Equipment was scarce in the Mediterranean, especially in the backwater of Crete. The British forces had seven commanders in seven months. By early April, airfields at Maleme and Heraklion and the landing strip at Rethymno, all on the north coast, were ready and another strip at Pediada-Kastelli was nearly finished. The Allies had a total of 42,000 men available. Of these, 10,000 were Greek and 32,000 Commonwealth; 27,000 Commonwealth troops had arrived from Greece within a week, many lacking any equipment other than their personal weapons, or not even those; 18,000 of these remained when the battle commenced.