It would not be until late morning that General O'Connor, still commanding VIII Corps, managed to issue his orders to his shell-shocked and battered divisions for his coordinated attack. The assault could not be started until late afternoon, which gave Dietrich time to feed in the first elements of the Hitlerjugend Division, with two panzergrenadier battalions and some tanks, in between the right flank of the Leibstandarte and 21st Panzer. Wisch's remaining Panzer IVs were also brought into the "stop line" on Bourguebus ridge, and at last panzergrenadiers arrived in strength to give the Leibstandarte's defensive line some depth. Later on that same afternoon, Kampfgruppe Wünsche also returned to the front. It had been caught up in an anti-invasion wild-goose chase, but now it was back it was tasked with providing the beleaguered Dietrich with another armoured reserve.

Lined up from west to east to take on the Waffen-SS was the battered 11th Armoured Division and the fresh 7th Armoured Division, while the Guards Armoured Division was tasked with taking on the Hitlerjugend. Wisch favoured the tactic of concentrating most of his tanks in the centre of the line on the Desert Rats' axis of advance. This decision would leave the left flank of the division held only by panzergrenadiers and a handful of StuG IIIs and 88mm Flak guns.

A Waffen-SS victory

When the 11th Armoured began its attack at 16:00 hours, the German defence initially held. However, the now re-equipped 3 RTR pressed home the attack, and when it destroyed one of the two StuG IIIs holding the village of Bras, the other StuG withdrew. This was disastrous for the panzergrenadier battalion positioned in the village, as it now found itself without anti-tank protection. By 17:10 hours, 3 RTR and a British infantry battalion were mopping up in the village, and by the time they had finished they had 300 Waffen-SS prisoners.

The Northamptonshire Yeomanry was now launched forward again to exploit this success, only to run into Peiper's Panthers and more StuG IIIs in hull-down firing positions. In the space of a few minutes, 32 Shermans were ablaze and the British regiment ceased to exist as a fighting unit. As his tanks were dealing with this attack, the weight of the 7th Armoured hit Peiper's main "stop line" in the centre of the Bourguebus ridge. The rapid loss of eight Shermans stopped the Desert Rats in their tracks, and they made no attempt to close with the Leibstandarte's hull-down tanks and 88mm flak guns.

On the Leibstandarte's right flank, the Hitlerjugend found itself on the receiving end of the Guards Armoured's onslaught. Its defence was stiffened by the arrival of the first Panzerjöger IV self-propelled anti-tank guns, which boasted powerful L70 long-barrelled 75mm cannons. The day of 19 July had been a major defensive success for I SS Panzer Corps: it had knocked out 65 of the 11th Armoured's tanks and scores of others along its front.

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