The ships arrived off Scarlet beach on time, and the destroyers conducted a short 11-minute preliminary bombardment. It was doubtful if any Japanese positions were hit or any casualties inflicted. Low cloud trapped the smoke and dust produced by the bombardment. To the Australians, it was "dark as the inside of a cow". Scarlet Beach and Siki Cove were covered by bunker-type pillboxes made of logs, spaced about apart, and connected by shallow trenches. They held about 300 Japanese defenders. Japanese tracer fire started pouring from the shore. At this point, one Australian recalled "I realised that this was not an unopposed landing." It was the first opposed landing by Australian troops since the Landing at Anzac Cove in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915.