Montgomery’s counteroffensive in the Ardennes began with 29th Armoured Brigade moving east of the Meuse to support the 6th Airborne Division’s attack against the German salient. The fighting concentrated in the area of Wavreille and Bure, small farming villages just to the south of Rochefort. The attack involved two parachute battalions of 5 Para Brigade. Their objectives were the villages of Bure and Wavreille and then eastwards to Grupont and Forrières to cross the river Lomme. The weather had become positively savage: spasmodic blizzards reduced visibility often to a matter of yards, deepening snow made ground conditions nearly impossible, and the cold was biting.

The attack on Bure by the 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion started at 1300. Supported by the tanks of C Squadron/2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry Regiment, A Company was to secure the village, while B Company secured the high ground and C Company was in reserve. The paratroopers were also supported by men of the 1st Belgian SAS Squadron. At 1430, the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion supported by another squadron of Shermans advanced on Wavreille, four kilometers north of Bure. The battle motto of 13th Para Battalion was “Win or Die,” a shortened version of: “They win or die who wear the rose of Lancashire.”

Despite the massive array of heavy guns available to 6th Airborne Division, the British attack on Bure went in without any artillery support. The attacking force came down the hills to the north and northwest of the village. When the paratroopers of the 13th Battalion reached the valley between the hills in the north and the village itself, the Germans opened fire with machine guns and mortars. The unfortunate Paras sat in the woods under heavy shelling.

“The Germans knew we were there,” recalled A Company’s commander, Major Jack Watson. “They were waiting for us and as soon as we started to break cover, I looked up and I could see about a foot above my head the branches of trees being shattered by intense machine gun fire and mortaring. They obviously had the guns on fixed lines and they pinned us down before we even got off the start line. This was the first time I’d led a company attack and within minutes I’d lost about one-third of them. I could hear the men of my left-hand platoon shouting for our medics.”

The attack immediately met sustained heavy mortar and machine gun fire, supported by German armor, and casualties mounted in both companies. The supporting tanks from C Squadron made an adventurous approach to the village, slithering from side to side on the glassy road. Two hundred yards short of the village the leading tank struck a mine and the remainder of the troop paused before entering the village from another quarter, where an armor-piercing shell took out another of the tanks.

Repelled, the paratroopers regrouped and attacked again. This time A Company managed to gain a foothold in the village while B Company reached the high ground through which it entered Bure. There, panzerfaust rockets knocked out two of the leading tanks and 13th Parachute Battalion took many casualties. The Paras fought their way from house to house, eventually establishing themselves at the crossroads in the center of the village. The Germans counter-attacked from the south-east, led by four self-propelled guns. British tanks put three of them out of action and the fourth withdrew. At 1800 the Paras along with a troop of Shermans from 2nd Fire & Forfar Yeomanry held half of Bure.