 As infantry disembarked from the landing craft , they often found themselves on sandbars 50 to 100 yards ( 45 to 90 m ) out . To reach the beach they had to wade through water sometimes neck deep , and they still had 200 yards ( 180 m ) or more to go when they did reach shore . Those that made it to the shingle did so at a walking pace because they were so heavily laden . Most sections had to brave the full weight of fire from small arms , mortars , artillery , and interlocking fields of heavy machine gun fire . Where the naval bombardment set grass fires burning , as it had at Dog Red opposite the Les Moulins strongpoint , the smoke obscured the landing troops and prevented effective fire from being laid down by the defenders . Some sections of G / 116 and F / 116 were able to reach the shingle bank relatively unscathed , though the latter became disorganized after the loss of their officers . G / 116 was able to retain some cohesion , but this was soon lost as they made their way westwards under fire along the shingle in an attempt to reach their assigned objectives . The scattering of the boats was most evident on the 16th RCT front , where parts of E / 16 , F / 16 and E / 116 had intermingled , making it difficult for sections to come together to improvise company assaults that might have reversed the situation caused by the mis @-@ landings . Those scattered sections of E / 116 landing at Easy Red were able to escape heavy casualties , although , having encountered a deep <unk> after being landed on a sandbank , they were forced to discard most of their weapons to make the swim ashore . 
