With Italian attacks continuing to grind forward slowly, Godwin-Austen dispatched reinforcements for the Northern Rhodesians from his tiny reserve. The Italian 15th Colonial Brigade’s probes had found the flanks of the King’s African Rifles dug in on Punjabi Ridge, and troops slipped past the KAR and into the British rear areas, where they encountered the small column sent forward by Godwin-Austen.

The Italians caught the British complete by surprise, mauling the Black Watch and the supply column and destroying Godwin-Austen’s confidence in his position. He radioed his superiors for permission to abandon the colony and gave up on his plans to replace his shaky Northern Rhodesians with the Black Watch, but sacked the King’s African Rifles’ battalion commander – the KAR relief force wandered through the darkness and never arrived to aid the Black Watch and their supply column.