XXX Corps with British 6th Airborne Division attached, was to clear the area east of Dinant, Rochefort, Grupont and Bure in Belgium.

On 2 January 1945, they were to capture the villages of Bure and Grupont supported by the Sherman tanks of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry detached from the 11th Armoured Division.

The attack was met immediately with heavy mortar and machine-gun fire, supported by German armour and casualties began to rise in both companies.

[6] German counter-attacks now began but the battalion was able to form a tight perimeter around half the village and set up strong points in occupied buildings.

[6] By now the town of Bure was nearly a heap of rubble but the Germans clung to the houses and ruins, hid in cellars and catacombs, fighting and sniping to the end.

The men of the 6th Airborne went on to liberate Wavreille, Jemelle, On, Hargimont, Nassogne, Forrieres, Masbourg, Lesterny, Amberloup, Marloie, Waha and Roy.

At Bande on 11 January 1945, a patrol from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion who had been in reserve, accompanied by the Belgian SAS, discovered the bodies of thirty-four civilians who had been murdered by the Germans on Christmas Eve.

[9][10] By the middle of 6 January, the 6th Airborne Division withdrew to Holland and patrolled along the river Maas before returning to the United Kingdom in late February in preparation for their next undertaking in Operation Varsity.

In the church, there is a memorial book to the men of the 6th British Airborne Division killed in action during the Ardennes campaign, in addition to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Hotton.