Through this time, the Japanese were able to bring telling fire upon the Isurava position. Most accounts report this came from machine guns, or heavy mortars and artillery pieces. The account in Williams suggests that the mortars have been misidentified—attributing this instead to artillery alone. Williams reports eight artillery guns: with six artillery guns and machine gun fire falling on the rest house (later). The other two were dispersed in support of the 2/144th east of the gorge and the 1/144th in close support. The Australians were only able to reply with a single 3-inch medium mortar of the 39th Battalion that arrived on 27 August, having been brought up by the 2/14th after being airdropped at Myola.