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Captain Williams and his men fought bravely to hold the position until orders came for the company to fall back to the south.  The main German counterattack developed from the Foret de Facq as a tank-infantry thrust aimed at rolling up the north flank of the bridgehead, and destroying the American bridges.  This force (later estimated as two battalions and fifteen tanks) took the village of Ste. Genevieve, swept over the end of the ridge which extended south of the village, captured Bezaumont, and began a final assault in company with the Loisy combat group to reach the bridge sites. 

The small detachments of the 317th Infantry outposting the north tip of the Ste. Genevieve Ridge were driven back into the 318th Infantry positions.  Communications were destroyed and command posts overrun.  At the command post of the 318th Infantry, a sharp fight briefly halted the German attack, but the regimental commander, Colonel Harry D. McHugh, was wounded, part of the regimental staff was captured, and about 120 officers and men were killed.

Little coordinated resistance was possible as the scrambled units of the 317th and 318th were forced back toward the bridges.  Officers gathered small groups wherever they could locate a few men in the darkness, majors commanding platoons and captains commanding battalions.  Near the bridge site, the situation was further confused when American vehicles coming from across the river met the stream of trucks and infantry moving back toward the bridges.  About 5:00am, a thin line of infantry firing from the ditches along the road between Loisy and the crossroads west of Bezaumont momentarily checked the enemy; but this position was quickly overrun by German tanks that left the ditches full of dead and wounded.

Captured German Photo

However, the fight along the roadside had given time for Lt. Col. J.C. Golden, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, 318th Infantry, to gather enough men and tanks at le Pont de Mons to meet the final German assault.  [Author's note; This portion of the "official" history is incorrect.  "B" Company, 702nd Tank Battalion was already at le Pont de Mons, and was already under attack.  The infantry were pouring back to the bridge.  Col. Golden came to the "B" Company tanks, parked in a defensive semi-circle, and using the tanks for shelter, rallied the retreating infantry, to help the tanks stop the attack.  The actual number of infantry standing ground with the tanks was minimal.  Essentially, "B" Company, 702nd Tank Battalion was all that stood between victory and defeat for the 80th.  It was "B" Company's stubborn determination that halted this German counterattack.  The Germans had been caught by surprise.  They did not know there were tanks at le Pont de Mons.]

While the infantry fought from houses, "B" Company, 702nd Tank Battalion knocked out the leading enemy tanks and assault guns at ranges as close as two hundred yards [again, testimony from tankers on the scene, disputes this, in that the ranges were much closer].  No Germans reached the bridges, although at one time the fight surged within a hundred yards of the eastern exits, where three companies from the 248th and 167th Engineer Combat Battalions defended the bridges with rifles and machine guns.  The attack had spent itself, the German commander had no fresh troops to give the added impetus needed for the last few hundred yards, and with full daylight, the attackers began to withdraw toward the north, harassed by shells from the 313th Field Artillery Battalion-the only American artillery in the bridgehead.

Meanwhile, Combat Command "A", 4th Armored Division, had begun to cross into the bridgehead and the head of the armored column cut into the retreating enemy.  By 8:00am, the advance guard had fought it's way into Ste. Genevieve, and the armor was rolling toward the east, leaving the American infantry to recover it's lost ground and hold the bridgehead.  The troops around le Pont de Mons were hastily reorganized and at 9:30am, General McBride gave the order to counterattack.  Many of the enemy left in the wake of Combat Command "A" were captured, and at no point could the Germans stand and hold.