At 4:15 a.m. on the morning of 9 April 1940, German troops crossed the Danish border into South Jutland. At the same time, German units landed in Gedser, Korsør and Copenhagen.

After brief battles in South Jutland and with German bombers demonstrating the might of the Wehrmacht by flying over Copenhagen, the Danish government decided at 6 a.m. to halt the resistance. The battles had cost the lives of 16 Danes and 2 or 3 Germans.