Landing craft
After sunrise, minesweepers began clearing mines near the beach so the LSTs could start landing vehicles at 08:00. "LST-338" was straddled by Italian shellfire as soon as it beached. Italian artillery intensified firing at the eastern beach from 07:10 until "Boise" and "Savannah" temporarily silenced the batteries at 09:40. Landing craft temporarily stopped using the beach when Italian artillery resumed firing at 10:10 and destroyed some landing craft and supplies offloaded onto the beach. Half-tracks attempting to move inland from the eastern beach encountered an Italian minefield. Teller mines destroyed trucks, DUKWs and five navy bulldozers. Mine detectors were unreliable after exposure to salt water during the landing, and the first path through the minefield was not cleared until 12:12. By noon, not a single piece of Allied artillery had been landed, and none of the ten tanks assigned to the 1st Division were ashore. Landing craft had to wait up to four hours to be unloaded while the beach was congested by vehicles waiting to move inland. Unloading was frequently interrupted by air attacks and artillery fire; and a shortage of landing craft developed as nearly 200 were disabled by shellfire or broaching in the surf. Unexpected sand bars paralleled the beach offshore and prevented some landing craft (including LSTs carrying tanks) from getting ashore to offload their cargo. Some soldiers landing on the sandbars in darkness drowned wading toward the beach with their heavy packs. In the confusion ashore, some of the 1st Infantry Division's supporting artillery was diverted to the Licata beaches to the west and the Scoglitti beaches to the east; and was significantly delayed traveling overland to Gela.