 Despite these preparations , very little went according to plan . Ten landing craft were swamped by the rough seas before they reached the beach , and several others stayed afloat only because their passengers bailed water out with their helmets . <unk> was prevalent among the troops waiting offshore . On the 16th RCT front , the landing boats passed struggling men in life preservers and on rafts , survivors of the DD tanks which had sunk in the rough sea . Navigation of the landing vehicles was made difficult by the smoke and mist obscuring the landmarks they were to use in guiding themselves in , while a strong current pushed them continually eastward . 
