In 2018 New Zealand military historian Ian McGibbon challenged the "myth" that Colonel Malone had refused a direct order to make a daytime attack, holding that Malone and Johnston both disagreed with Godley's order for the Auckland Battalion to attack in daylight, which dissention Johnston had reluctantly accepted. McGibbon said that the sole claim that Malone refused a direct order was made by NCO Charlie Clark in 1981. Malone had argued with a British officer, Major Arthur Temperley, who was Johnston's brigade major but junior to Malone.