Excerpt from Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War

The battalion received orders to return to Egypt and on 19 June began the 5 day journey. Travelling south through Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Rayak, the columns crawled over the Anti-Lebanons and ran into an intense heat wave on the frontiers of Palestine. The temperature rose until with-out warning serious tyre trouble occurred throughout the entire convoy. Many vehicle breakdowns occurred due to the exceptional heat.