On Chunuk Bair the desperate struggle to hold back the Turks continued, as Ali Reza, commander of 8^th Division, pressed on with counter attacking the New Zealanders that morning. Lieutenant Colonel Athelston Moore of the Otago Regiment was soon wounded and passed command to Lieutenant Colonel Meldrum of the Wellington Mounted Rifles. Meldrum had about 170 of his own troopers, about 400 men from the Otagos and a few men from the Canterburys. As he crammed these 600 men into this small area, attrition continued to take its toll:

Just after 4 am they [the Turks] began developing for an attack. Our artillery and the warships got going at them, but we could not tell how much damage they did. About 4.15 they came on, starting with a bomb attack, supported with rifle, machine gun, and shrapnel. Our boys replied vigorously with rifle fire, but the bombs began to get in the trenches, and a good many men were hit. Captains Hastings and James both had broken legs (from bombs) within a few minutes.

At about 5.00 pm, at the height of the Turkish assault, disaster struck the New Zealand positions again. Probably thinking that the front line trench had been overrun, the navy and Anzac artillery began dropping shells onto the New Zealander defenders. Meldrum recalls that moment:

Unfortunately, some of our own high explosive shells fell in our trenches. Major Elmslie fell wounded on the edge of the trench, and Captain Kelsall was killed by a bomb immediately after. A flag was sent up in the trenches to show the artillery we held them, and everybody set himself to beat back the attack. For about an hour the Turks kept it up with varying intensity, but our boys kept their heads, and put in a heavy rifle fire, which ultimately told its tale.28