6th Division penetrated the defences of the Italian stronghold. Despite some heavy resistance the town fell to the Australians just two days later. The Australians captured a large amount of Italian war material as well as thousands of Italian prisoners of war (POWs), many of whom were shipped to prison camps in Australia. The fighting continued until 5 January when the Italian position had been cut almost into two. The Allies took nearly 40,000 Italian prisoners and considerable amounts of enemy weapons, supplies and equipment. The battle for Bardia cost 130 Australian lives with 326 men wounded. On 22 January 1941, the Italian held port of Tobruk fell to the AIF and 25,000 Italians became prisoners. During January and February 1941, the 6th Division, together with British units, pushed the Italian army back across Libya, including actions at Derna, Barce and Benghazi. The Italian Tenth Army was destroyed. Although Wavell initially planned to leave the 6th Division in Cyrenaica for defence, the 7th Division was still insufficiently trained and equipped. As such in early April 1941, the 6th Division was withdrawn from North Africa to defend Greece and replaced by the 9th Division, which took part in the epic Siege of Tobruk between April and November 1941 against Italian and German forces. Throughout the campaign, the division lost 241 killed, 790 wounded and 21 captured. Greece, Crete and Syria Hitler was concerned that if Greece—which since 28 October 1940 was fighting against the Italians in Albania—became a British ally then the Ploesti oilfields in Romania, on which Germany relied for her fuel, might be open to air attack from Greece. As the Germans were planning an invasion of Russia for June 1941, they could not allow such a threat to their essential oil supplies, and so they began planning an invasion of Greece. In March 1941, Prime Minister Robert Menzies, of Australia, with the concurrence of his Cabinet, agreed to the sending of Australian troops to Greece to defend against a German attack. Both Menzies and the I Corps commander, Blamey, felt that the operation was risky and might end in disaster, but Menzies stated that Greece should be supported against German aggression and that the defence of Greece was a "great risk in a good cause". The 6th Division arrived in Greece in late March and early April 1941, where they joined with a New Zealand and British force.