 Many half @-@ tracks , jeeps and trucks foundered in deep water ; those that made it ashore soon became jammed up on the narrowing beach , making easy targets for the German defenders . Most of the radios were lost , making the task of organizing the scattered and dispirited troops even more difficult , and those command groups that did make the shore found their effectiveness limited to their immediate vicinity . Except for a few surviving tanks and a heavy weapons squad here or there , the assault troops had only their personal weapons , which , having been dragged through surf and sand , invariably needed cleaning before they could be used . 
