The decision to downgrade the VC recommendation to an award of the DCM was a disappointment to many in the 2nd New Zealand Division. Even outside of the division there was some surprise; the British Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, who was present during the fighting at Takrouna and visited the site of the action afterwards, expressed his dismay at the downgrade of Manahi's award in his postwar memoirs. Reports that Manahi's men had killed Italians attempting to surrender were thought by some historians to be a factor in the downgrading of his award. The official history of the Māori Battalion, published in 1956, stated that the surrendering soldiers were "shot, bayonetted or thrown over a cliff" but only after an Italian grenade had been thrown into a building in which wounded New Zealanders were sheltering. However, these reports may not have emerged until after the downgrading, and at the time the killings were alleged to have occurred, Manahi himself was reportedly dealing with an advance by Italian soldiers against the ledge. Another factor in the downgrading may have been the recent VC nomination for Ngarimu, just three weeks earlier. The subsequent nomination of Manahi, a Māori like Ngarimu and from the same battalion, may have led to a perception that VCs were being too easily awarded.