The Turks were lighting fires in the stunted pine growth a short distance ahead, which lit with a red flickering light the overhanging clay cliffs of Table Top rising sharply at the farther side of the defile. Then the cold white glare of a searchlight settled on its flat top, and in a few minutes heavy howitzer, 18-pounder and naval shells shrieked overhead and burst, flashing and roaring, on the crest. The overhanging crag, her summit rent by an inferno of shell fire, her inaccessible escarpment lit by the lurid glow of scrub fires, and the fantastic smoke clouds eerily revealed by the searchlight, made altogether a wild night battle scene of weird glory. The bombardment ceased suddenly, the searchlight switched off, and part of the regiment, who had crawled through the scrub on the more accessible flank during the shelling, successfully rushed the Top.

Elmslie’s men, supported by the Maoris, had captured an important part of the jigsaw. For the Maoris these two assaults were their first real action, and they:

went into that splendid attack, their first battle with the bayonet, in a mood of savage determination and delight. This was their chance for fame. They went grimly for those Turks, bayoneted them in their lines, they burst into a tremendous haka when they had cleared the trenches – “Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, ka ora!” – then silence as they pressed on to the next point.16

The Turks, from 2/14 Regiment, were taken completely by surprise, which was illustrated later on during the night as several parties of Turks walked calmly onto Table Top without realizing its new occupants. By the morning the Wellingtons had taken just over 150 prisoners, here and on Destroyer Hill.