In these Ottoman trenches (primarily facing south, with a few shallow trenches facing east), the defenders saw the light horsemen charge and "opened fire with shrapnel on the 4th and 12th Regiments immediately they deployed". As the advance became a gallop, the 12th Light Horse Regiment was fired from the trenches on Ras Ghannam. The Notts Battery opened fire on machine-gunners in the trenches at Ras Ghannam; after a second shot, the Ottoman soldiers were seen in retreat. The two regiments had ridden nearly when the 12th Light Horse Regiment (on the left) was targeted by heavy machine-gun fire from the direction of Hill 1180, "oming from an effective range which could have proved destructive; but the vigilant officers of the Essex Battery ... got the range at once, and ... put them out of action with the first few shells". The charging regiments were again fired on about east of Beersheba. Here the Notts Battery silenced and drove out a garrison in a redoubt at Point 980 (indicated in red on the brigade's war-diary sketch map) which was enfilading the charge. The remainder of the 4th Machine Gun Squadron and the reserve squadron of the 12th Light Horse Regiment, advanced towards Point 980 and the town in the wadi on the left, to protect the left flank of the charging regiments.