The effort of the 179th Infantry against the western side of the salient made little headway during the first few days of the period. Elements of the 179th Regiment with the 19th Armored Infantry Battalion mopped up scattered islands of resistance in the Sarreinsberg area and cleared the vital Sarreinsberg-Wingen road. Disposal of these primary obstacles made feasible an attack on Althorn from the north and west which occurred on 10 January. Entry into the town was effected on the same day despite heavy artillery and mortar fire. On the following day Althorn was cleared of the enemy, and high ground to the south was occupied. On 12 January the 179th Infantry jumped off from the Althorn area with three battalions abreast. Troops attacked from a line extending from the road northwest out of Wildenguth to a position a few hundred yards north of Althorn. After three days of futile fighting against a stubborn enemy and over rugged terrain the attack in force was abandoned. The period 15-20 January was marked only by vigorous patrolling and a general strengthening of the line east of Althorn. On 17 January elements of the 1.79th Infantry still within the XV Corps boundary were relieved finally by the 36th Division. These elements were then free to aid the main body of the regiment in the execution of its mission.

On 8 January the 180th and 313th Infantry Regiments were engaged in heavy, inconclusive fighting at the tip of the salient. The two regiments maintained a line slightly north of Reipertswiller with the 180th Infantry on the left and the 313th on the right. The situation remained static until 10 January when the left column of the 313th Infantry pushed to high ground north of Saegmuhl while the right flank had advanced to high ground one mile northeast of Reipertswiller.

The enemy effectively blocked the attack of the 180th Infantry during the next few days. The Ist Battalion of the 314th Regiment appeared briefly to replace the 2nd Battalion of the 157th in this sector. On 14 January the 1st Battalion of the 315th relieved the 313th Regiment in its positions to the right of the 180th Infantry. On 15 January the 180th Infantry relieved the 1st Battalion of the 314th. The period 15-20 January was marked by little activity. Pressure was maintained by employing patrols and light attacks.

The struggle for ascendancy on the eastern shoulder of the salient gave early promise of violent developments. On 8 January there was little evidence of a change in the enemy's dispositions, but intense activity in the area behind the lines suggested an enemy build-up. The 274th, 275th, and 276th Infantry Regiments, units of Task Force Herren, held the eastern side of the salient. These three regiments, the infantry elements of the 70th Division, had been moved progressively into the line on the Philippsbourg front during the first days of January. At the end of December Task Force Herren had occupied Rhine flank defenses together with Task Force Linden. During the early hours of the German counter-offensive, however, as left flank regiments of the 79th Division were attached to the 45th Division in the zone of German advances, regiments of Task Force Herren were attached to the 79th Division and brought up to the rim of the Bitche salient, leaving defense of the Rhine to Task Force Linden. By 8 January the 276th Infantry had completed its mission of maintaining a security line between Lichtenberg and Obemuhlthal and liquidating enemy who had infiltrated to the rear of this line. The 274th and 275th Regiments occupied a front farther to the northeast on both sides of Philippsbourg.

While the 103rd Infantry Division assumed gradual control of the area east of Baerenthal without serious incident, the 157th Regiment engaged in eight days of bitter fighting between 14 and 21 January in a vain effort to clear the enemy out of the dense, rugged, and snow-covered forest that lies below the Mouterhouse-Baerenthal Valley. It was the mission of the entire 45th Division to attack northward to seize the ridge that overlooks this valley from the south: the 179th Infantry was to attack on the left, in the direction of Mouterhouse; the 180th was to hold in the center; the 157th with the 36th Engineer on its right flank was to attack on the division's right.

At 1530 hours, 20 January, the rearward forces began to fire rifles and automatic weapons into the air to bewilder the Germans; and the radio from the five companies broadcast "'We're coming out. Give us everything you've got." Firing continued for three minutes; smoke rounds were lobbed in to cover the break. But one hour later the radio reported that the enemy cordon could not be broken. Only two men out of the five companies got out. Only some 125 out of the original force of about 750 men remained unwounded; but they had to be abandoned, together with the wounded and the dead. By nightfall they had been engulfed by the enemy. On the following day the 157th Infantry was withdrawn from the line.

The initial effort of the German counter-offensive against the Seventh Army in January had been launched in the early hours of New Year's Day in the Sarre Valley and south of Bitche. The Sarre Valley drive was the first to be blunted and then brought to a halt. The enemy's deepest penetration was made southeast of Bitche. During the month of January the German 36th Infantry Division had been shifted from the Sarreguemines area to the east side of the Bitche salient to add to the striking power of the 6th SS Mountain Division and - the 256th Volks Grenadier Division. The enemy attempted to burst out of the nose of the salient without success. These major drives of operation Nord- wind were countered and shattered by the smooth, rapid reshuffling of tactical reserves. On this sector of the Seventh Army front in the Sarre Valley and the Low Vosges the enemy battered himself to exhaustion. By 20 January the situation was stabilized and the threat of any enemy breakthrough reduced if not eliminated.