The decision to send troops to Greece
Around 62,000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops were sent from Egypt to Greece, weakening the desert force at exactly the moment Rommel was landing in Tripoli. The commanders in Cairo doubted it could succeed. It was a political decision about not abandoning an ally who was winning, taken with open eyes. It failed in Greece and it also cost the desert: Rommel retook Cyrenaica in April against a force stripped of its best divisions.