It initially pushed the Germans back with machine gun, small arms and mortar fire, and hand-to-hand combat and stopped the German advance. Without radio communication between the front-line artillery liaison officer and 196th Field Artillery, their guns could not be brought to bear on the German assault until communication was restored at 06:50. The artillery had registered the forward positions of the American infantry and shelled the advancing Germans while the American soldiers remained in their covered foxholes. It was the only sector of the American front line attacked during the Battle of the Bulge where the Germans failed to advance. By 07:45, the Germans withdrew, except for a group which had penetrated the Battalion's center and was soon repulsed. At 12:35, the Germans launched their attack again, and were pushed back by artillery and mortar fire. The result of the first day of what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge was 104 Germans dead "in an area yards in front of our lines to behind the line, and another 160 wounded counted in front of battalion lines." The 3rd Battalion lost four killed, seven wounded, and four missing. "We learned from a German Lieutenant prisoner of war that the enemy's mission was to take Höfen at all costs."