German boats sent frequent position and contact reports, a practice that helped Allied direction finding but also supplied Dönitz with information. Convoys with unusually light escort were not a one-month anomaly. Fast escorts disappeared over six to eight weeks as the invasion forces assembled. Returning commanders and routine reports gave headquarters repeated opportunities to notice that concentration. Dönitz's failure was not a lack of incoming data but an inability to step back and interpret what the pattern meant.
Notable Point · 2:53:52-2:55:22
Dönitz had reports but did not read the Torch pattern
Daily position reports and six to eight weeks of disappearing escorts provided a strategic warning that Dönitz did not convert into an operational response.