With Indian troops following closely on their heels, the Italians deployed their irregular cavalry to slow them down. Lt. Amadeo Guillet led out a force of Amhara horsemen for a dawn attack on Gazelle Force’s attached artillery. The Italian colonials had no artillery support and apparently no mission but to delay the enemy advance.

Guillet survived this attack to write a book about his adventures, but apparently most of his command did not. Many aspects of his story seem suspect, though the Indian Official History of the campaign does note an attack by 60 enemy cavalrymen, not the hundreds of horsemen plus additional fighters on foot Guillet placed under his own command in his telling. Guillet also claimed the enemy included Matilda tanks, spinning a dramatic tale of his friend’s heroic death in charging one on horseback while tossing grenades, but the Matilda tanks deployed later at Agordat had not yet reached the front at this time. In both versions the attack failed to destroy the British guns, and though Guillet claimed that he had delayed the advance the attack on Cheru Pass went off the next day as scheduled.