 By 28 May the position on the island as a whole had been lost and General Freyberg ordered the evacuation.When the men of the 14th Brigade heard of the evacuation they were astonished; 

The evacuation was badly attacked during the withdrawal to Alexandria with over one-fifth of the 4,000 troops evacuated being killed, wounded or captured on the voyage out.The destroyer HMS "Imperial" suffered mechanical failure and had to be sunk by the "Hotspur" and due to the delay, caused by transferring men over to the other ships, the convoy was still well within reach of the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force.