The day was now far gone, and the advance seemed to be at a standstill. General Chaytor then put in his reserve brigade (the 1st), to co-operate in the attack on Tel el Saba from the south. General Cox, commanding the brigade, directed the 2nd A.L.H. Regiment on the two block-houses, and the 3rd on Tel el Saba. From the shelter of a small wadi, some three miles south of the hill, the two regimental commanders scrutinised the open plain in front of them in an effort to find some covered way of approach. None could be found, so the two commanders determined to make a dash for it mounted, and get as near as possible before dismounting to continue the attack on foot.
Deploying from the wadi, the two regiments swung out into line of troop columns at wide interval, and galloped forward over the open plain in full view of the enemy. Several Turkish batteries at once opened fire on them, but they were advancing so fast that the enemy gunners seemed to be unable to get the range, and but little damage was caused by their fire. It was not, indeed, till the regiments came under machine-gun fire that casualties began to occur, and, even then, our loss was slight, probably owing to the comparatively steep angle of descent of machine-gun bullets at long ranges, and to the difficulty of finding and keeping the range. At 1500 yards from the position, they rode into a convenient depression, and here they dismounted and continued the advance on foot.
There was no cover of any sort, and their approach from this point was necessarily slow, in face of the heavy fire which they encountered. Now that they were on foot, and moving slowly, they began to suffer severely, whereas they had advanced mounted for over two miles with scarcely any casualties. An intense fire fight developed, as the two brigades closed gradually in on the enemy. Our little thirteen-pounder Horse Artillery guns, though pushed up boldly to close range, could make little impression on the well-built enemy trenches and machine-gun emplacements on Tel el Saba, and none at all on the thick stone walls of the block-houses. They did good service, however, in keeping down the hostile fire.
About two o'clock, the 2nd A.L.H. Regiment reached and stormed the block-houses, and, from the captured positions, poured a heavy fire into the flank of Tel el Saba. This caused some slackening of the enemy's fire, of which the New Zealanders took prompt advantage. With a sudden, tremendous rush, they charged down the bed of the wadi, up the steep sides of the hill, and into the position, almost before the Turks were aware of the attack. A few minutes' sharp bayonet fighting completed the capture of the hill, with about 120 prisoners and a large number of machine guns. This success removed the last obstacle to our advance on Beersheba, but the town itself still held out, and there was a wide space of open ground still to be crossed before it could be assaulted.