The Turkish army numbered about 18,000 men, including 4000 in reserve, and was well equipped. The soldiers had been assured that during the great Fast of Ramadan they should destroy the infidel and march victoriously into Egypt. But General Lawrence, whose cavalry and aircraft had been in touch with the advancing army since July 21, had made very thorough preparations for its reception, and the Battle of Romani was fought strictly in accordance with his plans, the enemy conforming with pleasing docility to the tactics he laid down for them. General Lawrence had a large force of artillery, cavalry, and infantry in an entrenched camp at Romani, secured on the north by the sea, and conspicuously protected on its eastern and southern fronts by strong redoubts and entrenchments. The south-western front, being left open ostentatiously, invited attack. The enemy could not ignore the force at Romani and march on towards Kantara and Dueidar, where the 42nd Division and two brigades of cavalry were stationed, as they would then be taken in rear and flank by the troops from Romani and in front by the Kantara force. They fell into the trap. Their aircraft reported the strength of the British position to the east and south of Romani and its apparent weakness to the south-west. On the night of August 3 they had attacked the cavalry outposts to the south of the camp, and had slowly driven them in. On the morning of the 4th they made a strong feint, with the greater part of their artillery, against the redoubts held by the 52nd Division on the east, while their main body moved to the south-west to attack the front that had been invitingly left open. The Anzac Light Horse, withdrawing slowly and skilfully, and now fighting on foot, led them on until they were involved among the sandhills, and at noon the cavalry and R.H.A. from Dueidar closed in from the south-west. The attacks on Katib Gannit, held by the 52nd, had now been repulsed with heavy loss by the Lowlanders, and it was at this stage that Major-General Chauvel, commanding the Anzacs, asked that the 127th Brigade might be sent with all speed to help “mop up” the Turk, who so far had been fighting stoutly as usual.