Copenhagen (København), and a simultaneous ground assault across the Jutland (Jylland) peninsula. On 4 April, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the Abwehr and involved in the German resistance to Nazism, warned the Danes of an imminent invasion. Skirmishes Although the Royal Danish Army was warned of the attack, it was denied permission to deploy or prepare defensive positions as the Danish government did not want to give the Germans any provocation for their actions. Only small and scattered units of the frontier guard and elements of the Jutland (Jylland) division were available to meet the land invasion. Believing the attack was imminent, the troops were placed on full alert at 13:30 on 8 April. Fighting in Jutland The Danish border was breached at Sæd, Rens, Padborg, and Krusaa (Kruså) at 04:15 on the 9th. With the Kriegsmarine simultaneously landing troops at Lillebælt, Danish troops at the border were cut off at the beginning of the fighting. The alarm was sounded at 04:17, and the first Danish troops were dispatched at 04:35. Eastern flank Lundtoftbjerg The first clash between the Danish Army and the invading forces occurred at Lundtoftbjerg, where a Danish anti-tank platoon armed with two 20 mm guns and a light machine gun had taken up positions covering the road. A German column appeared at 04:50, and the 20mm cannons opened fire on the armoured cars while the machine gun took aim at the motorcyclists. A fire started in a nearby barn, filling the air with smoke and hindering the German advance. Eventually the anti-tank platoon was forced to withdraw to Aabenraa (Åbenrå). About 1.5 km (1 mile) to the north, a bicycle platoon prepared a defence of a railway bridge, but fire from the armoured cars and strafing fighter aircraft forced them to retreat, and a third of them were captured. The Germans lost two armoured cars and three motorcycles, while the Danes suffered one dead and one wounded. Another German column reached Hokkerup a few kilometers east of Lundtoftbjerg at 05:30. They encountered a roadblock made with farm equipment, set up only 20 minutes earlier by 34 Danish soldiers. The Danes knocked out the three leading armoured cars, forcing them to pull back. The Germans set up a 37 mm gun 300 meters (yards) away, but it managed to fire only one round before being knocked out by two rounds from a 20mm gun. Hand-to hand combat