igence thought that the Allies had 90 divisions ready for the invasion (really only 39), so that even after the invasion of Normandy, the belief could still exist that Normandy was just a preliminary measure and the main invasion of the Pas de Calais was still to come. None of the German high command in France doubted that the invasion would strike the Pas de Calais. The Fuhrer himself, Adolf Hitler, had an intuition that the invasion would come to Normandy but was unable to incite his commanders to make more than minimal reinforcement there.Due to weather conditions, the invasion had to be postponed a day. On June 6 around 12:15 am, an air attack on Normandy started. The Germans saw the airborne assault as nothing more than a raid or at most a diversionary attack. (Lewis, David Levering, ed. Pg 58) As the airborne landings continued, Field Marshal von Rundstedt believed that even if the assault was a diversionary attack, it had to be defeated. Around 4:00 am, he ordered two panzer divisions to prepare for counter attack, but when he reported what he had done to the high command in Germany, word came back to halt the divisions pending approval from Hitler. Fortunately for the Allies the Fuhrer had taken a sleeping pill, and no one on the German command dared to wake him.When the seaborne units began to land about 6:30 AM on June 6, for 12 hours the British and Canadians fought on Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches and overcame with light opposition. So did the Americans at Utah. The American 1st Division at Omaha Beach, however, confronted the best of the German coast divisions, the 352nd, and was roughly handled. During the morning, its landing almost failed. Only dedicated local leadership eventually got the troops inland. (Locke, Alain, ed. Pg 53)It wasn’t until 4 p.m. on D-Day that Hitler finally awoke and at last approved the deployment of the two reserve panzer divisions. Allied deception had been remarkably effective and bec...
