'Wacht am Rhein' 20.Dec.1944 1.SS Panzerkorps

For I.SS-Panzerkorps the situation was a turning point as it struggled to supply and to support for the formidable, if stationary Kampfgruppe which had achieved the deepest penetration yet. Would it be resupplied and reinforced… or strangled?
  North of the Ambleve the kampfgruppe’s strength had so far been augmented by the company of of Fallschirmjger from Fallschirm.Rgt.9, by part of II.Battalion, SS.Pz.Gren.Rgt.2, and by the divisional reconnaissance unit, SS-Pz.Aukl.Abt. 1, though it should be bore in mind that the divisional units under Peiper’s command, not all of their strength was necessarily north of the river. For example, he had only one of the ten Tiger IIs belonging to s.SS-Pz.Abt. 501 and just one Panzer IV of the 7.Kompanie,SS-Pz.Rgt. 1.
  The American decision to eliminate this dangerous breakthrough had resulted in the reorganization of their strength in the area. In the middle of the previous afternoon the 119th Regiment and the 740th Tank Battalion, organized under Brigadier General William K. Harrison, the 30th Infantry Division’s second in command, as Task Force Harrison, had been detached from the 30th Infantry and assigned the operational control of XVIII Airborne Corps. At the same time the corps took back its 82nd AB Division from the V Corps and received part of the 3rd Armored Division. The Airborne 503th P.I.R. was engaged towards Cheneux and its 505th P.I.R. further east towards Trois-Ponts, while CCB of the 3rd Armored assembled near Theux.
  On the morning of the 20th the 3rd Armored combat command, organized three task forces, was moved south by Brigadier General Raymond V. Boudinot. From the Spa area a task force under the command of Captain John W.Jordan was to attack Stoumont: one commanded by Major K.T. McGeorge was to move against the flank of the penetration from north of La Gleize at Borgoumont and from Francorchamps ; and the strongest of them, commanded by Lieutent Colonel William B. Lovelady, was to move south along the little Roannay valley to cut the Trois-Ponts - La Gleize road near Coo.
  Task Force Jordan made little progress. The column was confined to the road by high banks on either side and as it approached Stoumont a panzer knocked out two of its leading tanks. As no other means of approach was available, the task force halted for the night. Similarly, Task Force McGeorge was stopped around midday when it came up against a road-block south of Borgoumont. To the east Task Force Lovelady was more successful: pushing determinedly south, by 1.00 p.m. its tank battalion crossed the 117th Regiment’s positions at Roanne and got onto main N23 between La Gleize and Coo without any opposition. There they took by surprise and destroyed five trucks and two cars of a heavily camouflaged convoy which had crossed Petit-Spai bridge and was trying to resupply Peiper at La Gleize.
  Kampfgruppe Peiper was now completely cut-off. The ring was tightening around the Kampfgruppe’s southern flank as well, when, late in the afternoon, the 504th P.I.R. attacked Cheneux. Peiper, well aware of the importance of this southerly access route for any future development, had reinforced the bridgehead with the elements of II. Battalion, SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt. 2, as soon as they had joined the Kampfgruppe at La Gleize that morning. The paratroops’ 1st Battalion launched the assault across a bare field crisscrossed with barbed wire and took heavy punishment. After three costly attempts they gained a foothold in taking the first row of houses in the village but, as the fighting died away in the evening, part of Cheneux still remained in German hands.
  On the Western edge of the penetration, Task Force Harrison had fought its way forward the previous evening as the Germans withdrew after a brutal encounter near Stoumont railway station. On the 20th the task force began to attack Saint-Edouard sanitarium, a large building standing on high ground at the western edge of the village. Grim hand-to-hand fighting followed inside the building; eventually the grenadiers were outnumbered and driven out, and by 8.00 p.m. the Americans were in control. Around midnight a fearsome counter-attack put the grenadiers back into possession of ‘Festung Sankt-Edouard’ - the Germans taking thirty prisoners in the process of destroying 5 Shermans.