Editing Battle of the Bulge (section)

===German advance halted===
[[File:American tank destroyers.jpg|thumb|left|[[90 mm Gun M1/M2/M3|M3 90mm gun]]-armed American M36 tank destroyers move forward to stem German spearhead near Werbomont, Belgium, 20 December 1944.]]

At dawn on 19 December, Peiper surprised the American defenders of Stoumont by sending infantry from the 2nd SS {{Lang|de|Panzergrenadier|italic=no}} Regiment in an attack and a company of Fallschirmjäger to infiltrate their lines. He followed this with a Panzer attack, gaining the eastern edge of the town. An American tank battalion arrived but, after a two-hour tank battle, Peiper finally captured Stoumont at 10:30. Knittel joined up with Peiper and reported the Americans had recaptured Stavelot to their east.{{sfn|Bouwmeester|2004|p=109}} Peiper ordered Knittel to retake Stavelot. Assessing his own situation, he determined that his ''Kampfgruppe'' did not have sufficient fuel to cross the bridge west of Stoumont and continue his advance. He maintained his lines west of Stoumont for a while, until the evening of 19 December when he withdrew them to the village edge. On the same evening the U.S. [[82nd Airborne Division]] under Maj. Gen. [[James M. Gavin|James Gavin]] arrived and deployed at La Gleize and along Peiper's planned route of advance.{{sfn|Bouwmeester|2004|p=109}}

German efforts to reinforce Peiper were unsuccessful. ''Kampfgruppe'' Hansen was still struggling against bad road conditions and stiff American resistance on the southern route. ''Schnellgruppe'' Knittel was forced to disengage from the heights around Stavelot. ''Kampfgruppe'' Sandig, which had been ordered to take Stavelot, launched another attack without success. Sixth Panzer Army commander Sepp Dietrich ordered [[Hermann Priess]], commanding officer of the I SS Panzer Corps, to increase its efforts to back Peiper's battle group, but Priess was unable to break through.{{sfn|Bouwmeester|2004|p=111}}

Small units of the U.S. 2nd Battalion, [[119th Infantry Regiment (United States)|119th Infantry Regiment]], 30th Infantry Division, attacked the dispersed units of ''Kampfgruppe'' Peiper on the morning of 21 December. They failed and were forced to withdraw, and a number were captured, including battalion commander Maj. [[Hal D. McCown]]. Peiper learned that his reinforcements had been directed to gather in La Gleize to his east, and he withdrew, leaving wounded Americans and Germans in the {{Interlanguage link|Froidcourt Castle|fr|3=Château de Froidcourt}}. As he withdrew from Cheneux, American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division engaged the Germans in fierce house-to-house fighting. The Americans shelled ''Kampfgruppe'' Peiper on 22 December, and although the Germans had run out of food and had virtually no fuel, they continued to fight. A Luftwaffe resupply mission went badly when SS-''Brigadeführer'' Wilhelm Mohnke insisted the grid coordinates supplied by Peiper were wrong, parachuting supplies into American hands in Stoumont.{{sfn|Bouwmeester|2004|p=112}}

In La Gleize, Peiper set up defenses waiting for German relief. When the relief force was unable to penetrate the Allied lines, he decided to break through the Allied lines and return to the German lines on 23 December. The men of the ''Kampfgruppe'' were forced to abandon their vehicles and heavy equipment, although most of the 800 remaining troops were able to escape.{{sfn|MacDonald|1984|p=461, 463}}