Defending the east of Beersheba, Tel el Saba redoubt was manned by a battalion of the 48th Regiment and a machine-gun company, while the 6th and 8th Regiments of the 3rd Cavalry Division were deployed on the high ground to the north-east (in the foothills of the Judean Hills) to guard the Jerusalem road and keep Beersheba from being surrounded. To the west and south-west of the town, the 27th Division's 67th and 81st Infantry Regiments were deployed in a fortified semicircular line of deep trenches and redoubts strengthened by barbed wire. These regiments consisted primarily of "Arab farmers from the surrounding region, and although inexperienced fighters they were defending their own fields".