 The defenders mistook Italian tanks heading towards them for South African reinforcements led by armoured cars and let them approach unchallenged; of the 21st New Zealand Battalion were taken prisoner (the Italians apparently being just as surprised to find the area not occupied by Axis troops).The 6th New Zealand Brigade was almost destroyed in the fighting around Point 175 and eventually its remnants retreated to Zaafran.The division then returned to Egypt to refit, having suffered When the division reassembled, it was sent to Syria to recuperate and was almost returned to Asia to participate in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater after the Japanese invasion of Malaya on 1941.