on the 16th, 1st panzer division took omont and bouvellemont. balck would be awarded the knight's cross for his ability to motivate his exhausted units to continue the assault on bouvellemont. guderian had his troops press on in spite of widespread exhaustion and forced the attack on montcornet. here, xix army corps was temporarily strengthened by 6th panzer division (werner kempf) of xli corps, bringing the operational strength of the combined units back up to three panzer divisions and compensating for the loss of 10th panzer division, which was still undertaking rearguard action. several hundred french soldiers were taken pow, including a detachment of the 4th armored division, a division then under command of charles de gaulle. by the evening of 16 may, guderian was convinced that xix army corps could finish the race to the english channel starting the following day. the corps leadership gave out "korpsbefehl nr. 7" for the following day. on xix army corps' right, 2nd panzer division was to advance over origny onto ribemont, whereas 1st panzer division would march forward on the left, from mézières towards hamégicourt.