At 8:50, the 43rd Tank Battalion’s S-3 (operations officer) reported taking German anti-tank fire from inside the town. Shortly after that, Major Ernst Tetsch, the commander of the 1st Battalion, 10th SS Panzer Regiment, 10th SS Panzer Division, advanced with several Panther medium tanks from Offendorf toward Herrlisheim. Running into American fire from the town, he lost one tank and his 3rd Company commander, who was wounded. Faced with an uncertain situation in very limited visibility, Tetsch withdrew to his regimental assembly area in Offendorf.

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At about 10 a.m., the 17th Armored Infantry Battalion, now inside Herrlisheim, lost radio contact with the 43rd Tank Battalion. A few minutes later, Novosel reported his position to CCA as being somewhere in the eastern section of the town. At 10:30 a.m. Novosel radioed, ‘Yesterday was a circus compared to what it is today.’

The 23rd Tank Battalion also took heavy casualties in its attack on Offendorf. By midmorning, Companies A and C had been reduced to an effective strength of 20 tanks. With CCB’s attack in the north failing, CCA changed the 23rd’s objective from Offendorf to Drusenheim. To reach Drusenheim, the 23rd Tank Battalion would have to cut to the north and either skirt or go directly through Herrlisheim. Late that morning, the battalion commander, Major Edwards, entered Herrlisheim to determine the situation in the town. Although the 43rd was still in radio contact with CCA at that point, Edwards could find no trace of them in the fog. Shortly after, Edwards sent his 20 tanks into Herrlisheim. They never made it through. They quickly joined in the fighting inside the town as they tried to support the 17th Armored Infantry.

Around noon, Companies A and B of the 17th linked up inside Herrlisheim at the junction of the road leading to Offendorf. The 43rd Tank Battalion and the 17th still had not found each other in the fog. At 12:30, Novosel radioed, ‘Things are hot,’ and requested more infantry support. About an hour later, Combat Command A received the final radio message from the 43rd. An unidentified soldier reported that the battalion commander’s tank had been knocked out and that the unit was now heavily engaged east of the town.

Early that afternoon, 1st Lt. Erwin Bachmann, Tetsch’s battalion adjutant, rode into Herrlisheim on a motorcycle accompanied by two Panthers from the 2nd Battalion’s 3rd Company. Bachmann set up the two tanks supported by Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons at a crossroads inside the town. He then ambushed and knocked out several Shermans, captured some 60 GIs and freed 20 German prisoners. Bachmann’s force also captured intact four Shermans and their crews, which he sent back to Offendorf under guard. Bachmann then moved his small force to the northern edge of Herrlisheim, where he knocked out two more Shermans.

Bachmann radioed his situation to his regimental headquarters in Offendorf, requesting additional tanks. At about 4 p.m., the Germans launched a strong attack out of the frozen mist enshrouding Offendorf. Six Panthers attacked across the railway embankment into the flank of Company A, 17th Armored Infantry Battalion. That attack pushed the 23rd Tank Battalion’s surviving tanks out of Herrlisheim. A few hours later, all of the 17th’s survivors huddled in the dark in a single position on the southern edge of the town. There still was no trace of the 43rd Tank Battalion.

General Allen decided to leave the 17th Armored Infantry Battalion in Herrlisheim that night. At midnight the Germans launched a large-scale infantry attack against Logan’s position. The 12th Armored’s divisional artillery fired back in support of the besieged GIs, but the German attacks continued throughout the early morning hours. At 4 a.m. the Germans mounted their heaviest assault yet, and Major Logan sent his last radio message, ‘I guess this is it.’ In the darkness and confusion of the final German push, about 140 Americans managed to escape and make it back across the Zorn.

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