“The Invasion Has Begun!” – First Radio Reports Confirm Allied Landings; Nazi Command Caught Unprepared
Thunder Bay – HISTORY – In the breaking dawn of June 6th, 1944, as the steel of Allied landing craft sliced through the Channel waters and paratroopers descended through rain and tracer fire, a very different scene unfolded inside the German High Command.
Initial German radio bulletins shortly after 6:30 a.m. Berlin time confirmed Allied troops had landed along the Normandy coast. These first broadcasts, captured by shortwave operators across Europe and America, suggested confusion and disarray. Berlin’s own propaganda machine hesitated — no doubt unsure whether this was the long-feared invasion or another Allied diversion.
Crucially, inside Adolf Hitler’s headquarters — the Berghof in Bavaria — the Führer remained asleep.
Despite mounting reports from coastal observation posts and panicked calls from front-line units under attack, Hitler’s aides and senior staff hesitated to wake him.
Obsessed with micromanagement yet unpredictable and often irrational, Hitler had issued strict orders never to be disturbed without clear evidence of an emergency. His subordinates, notably Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and General Alfred Jodl, were paralyzed by both fear and uncertainty.
By the time Hitler was finally roused — sometime after 10:00 a.m. — critical hours had passed. Reports from Normandy had clarified: Allied forces were not staging a feint. This was the invasion.
But even then, Hitler clung to the belief that Normandy was a diversion, the Vorposten, and that the true assault would come at the Pas de Calais — the narrowest point across the Channel. Convinced by the Allies’ masterful deception campaign (Operation Fortitude), Hitler refused to release the 15th Army from Calais or allow panzer divisions to counterattack without his direct approval.
This delay proved catastrophic.
As General Rommel was away from his post — visiting his wife in Germany for her birthday — and German reinforcements were slow to move under strict command protocols, Allied forces gained precious footholds on the beaches. By midday, tens of thousands of troops had crossed the surf, supported by massive naval gunfire and Allied air superiority.
The contrast could not be starker. While British and American soldiers fought ashore with blood and courage, Nazi leaders floundered in indecision and misjudgment. The Führer’s slumber, and his staff’s reluctance to disturb him, became a symbol of the crumbling command that once terrorized a continent.
As the day advanced and radios buzzed with confirmation from SHAEF and the BBC, the world knew: history had shifted. Europe was no longer under the iron grip of Axis certainty. A new chapter had begun — and it came ashore with the tide at Normandy.
