A week later, the Allies began the long, arduous campaign north through Italy by landing troops at Salerno. In the mistaken expectation of achieving surprise through a night assault, the Allies made no preliminary bombardment of entrenched German positions. When bombardment began providing close support for the Allied troops, it came more from battleship and cruiser gunfire than from aircraft, either land-based or carrier-launched. SOC float planes launched from cruisers and Mustang fighters flying from Sicily did the spotting for the big guns. The landings were rigorously contested and costly, comparable to those later at Anzio, Tarawa, and Normandy, but success was ultimately achieved.