D-Day, scheduled for the 5th June 1944, is postponed for at least 24 hours due to a bad weather forecast from the Allies Chief Meteorologist, Group Captain James Stagg. Allied commanders meet at 4.15 am and issue the order to postpone and recall the ships that have already set sail from ports across the southern coast of the British Isles - not an insignificant undertaking in itself.
Meanwhile, Erwin Rommel, commander of the defences on the Atlantic wall is waking, washing and changing before setting off at 6am, bound for Germany and his wife's birthday celebrations.
He plans to be back on the 8th June, ahead of an anticipated Allied landing later that month, which in all likelihood – so the Germans believe, will take place at the pas-de- Calais region of Northern France, the narrowest strip of water between Britain and the Nazi occupied continent.
At 1pm Allied intelligence is rocked by a mistaken Associated Press report that the invasion, codenamed operation Overlord, has already begun. The AP news agency issues a correction five minutes later but not before the newsflash has gone around the world. What damage has been done to the Allied cause by this teletype operator's coincidental practice on what he thought was a non-connected machine?
At 9pm the weather forecasters are back with the Allied command this time they have better news. They predict an improvement in the weather for 36 hours – it won’t be perfect by any means but the ships will be able to sail and airborne operation commence as planned. Will this be enough for Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower to give operation Overlord the go-ahead on June 6th? It will, ultimately, be his sole call - whether or not -the largest amphibious invasion fleet in history sets sail or not.
Sophie's Great War Tours operates regular bespoke tours of the Normandy beaches and battlegrounds around, where the fate of Western Europe was decided during the summer and autumn of 1944. We can also follow a particular servicemen, unit or country's contribution to the invasion and the following campaign for France and the Low Countries.