For the next week the Leibstandarte soldiers held their hard-won ground against a series of strong US counterattacks. The Waffen-SS panzers found themselves "fire-fighting" small local incursions by American tanks on the fringes of the positions held by the panzergrenadiers. Two precious King Tigers and several other panzers were lost in these scattered battles.

I SS Panzer Corps' assault

As the Leibstandarte was being brought to a halt south of Bastogne, I SS Panzer Corps was being mustered to the north of the town for a final push for victory. Hitlerjugend and Hohenstaufen had been pulled out of the northern shoulder and sent south, along with the 340th Volksgrenadier Division. Field Marshal Model visited the corps headquarters north of Bastogne on 2 January 1945 in order to put his seal of approval on the plans to smash open the American defences the following day. Hohenstaufen was to drive in from northwest of the town, and Hitlerjugend would attack from the northeast, as the Volksgrenadiers linked them together. Several Volks artillery brigades were mustered to provide fire support, which was fortunate, because the Hitlerjugend's guns were stranded to the north due to lack of fuel.

At 09:00 hours on 3 January, the German attack was launched as planned. Led by 20 Panzer IVs, the Hohenstaufen advanced in the face of heavy American anti-tank fire. The attack stalled in the afternoon when the panzers were caught in open ground. Another attack was attempted in the early evening and suffered a similar fate. The division tried a surprise raid later in the night and penetrated some distance behind American lines before it was beaten back.

The advance to Bastogne

In the early afternoon the Volksgrenadiers and Hitlerjugend began to move forward. The Volksgrenadiers were soon bogged down in heavy fighting in large forests. Hitlerjugend's panzer regiment led the division forward along the open ground to the left of the railway track, which headed south into the centre of Bastogne. It put 13 Panzer IVs, 7 Panthers and 15 Panzerjöger IVs into action, along with 28 Jagdpanzer IVs and 13 Jagdpanthers of the attached 560th Anti-Tank Battalion. Panzergrenadiers in armoured halftracks were close behind the German armour, and during the afternoon the armada made steady progress, advancing 3km (1.8 miles) despite heavy American artillery fire.

In a night attack, the Hitlerjugend made a further big advance, reaching the edges of the villages of Magaret and Bizory on the northern outskirts of Bastogne. Panzergrenadiers and Panzerjöger IVs now pressed into the large Azette wood in front of the town, cutting to pieces a US infantry battalion.

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