Narvik's unready garrison and Fleischer's response

Many Norwegian soldiers awoke to naval gunfire because the garrison had not been alerted when its own ships went into action. German troops reached the port before the defenders could occupy prepared positions. Colonel Konrad Sundlo then opened cease-fire negotiations and withdrew rather than mounting an effective defence. Reports accused him of pro-German sympathies, although the immediate problem was the asymmetry between an invasion force prepared for combat and defenders still operating in peacetime. From eastern Finnmark, General Fleischer ordered Sundlo's arrest through the local chain of command and began planning to retake Narvik. The episode links failed naval warning, port defence, and land command into one operational collapse.