Murray considered it very unlikely that an attack would occur anywhere other than in the northern sector and therefore was prepared to reduce the troops in Nos 1 and 2 Sectors to a minimum. He decided not to reinforce his four infantry brigades, but to increase the available fire-power at Romani by moving up the 160th and 161st Machine Gun Companies of the 53rd (Welsh) and the 54th (East Anglian) Divisions. He also ordered the concentration of a small mobile column made up of the 11th Light Horse, the City of London Yeomanry (less one squadron each) with the 4th, 6th and 9th Companies of the Imperial Camel Brigade in No. 2 Sector. He calculated that the whole of the defensive force, including the camel transport necessary to enable infantry in the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division to advance into the desert, would be fully equipped and the camels assembled by 3 August. Approximately 10,000 Egyptian Camel Transport Corps camels concentrated at Romani prior to the battle. British monitors in the Mediterranean Sea off Mahamdiyah got into position to shell the assembling Ottoman force, while an armoured train at Kantara was ready to assist the defence of the right flank, and all available aircraft were on standby at Ismailia, Kantara, Port Said and Romani.