The artillery barrage commenced at 05.25. While the 1/6th Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) — on the northern side of the battle — and the 1/7th Battalion — on the eastern side — encountered very little opposition, in the south the 1/5th was badly handled when they ran into positions held by the paratroopers of the 185th Paratroopers Division "Folgore". The brigade made little ground, taking 328 casualties in the process.^[1][2]

There were then attempts to relieve the survivors and renew the attack. In the northern part of the battle, these were successful, when the 132nd (Kent) Infantry Brigade took over, it was found that, despite little fighting, there had been a great many casualties from heatstroke in the 131st Brigade. When, on the following day, the relief operations and attempts to renew the attack in the south broke down, Lieutenant-General Horrocks called off the operation. As a result of the losses from the operation, some of the formations were unfit for the battle (Operation Lightfoot) and Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, the British Eighth Army commander, had to change his plans of keeping divisions together. During the remaining period of training, this often led to bewildering interchange of units, which also created considerably extra difficulties for the command structure.