On the night of 29 December 1944, American forces targeted a command post of a German company of the Panzer-Aufklärungs-Lehr abteilung 130, established in the village of Arville at the home of Arville resident Paul Gatin. The first shell exploded just a few metres from the house of Georges Lejeune, another Arville resident. That evening, lying in bed on the ground floor, their son Ernest was mortally wounded by shrapnel.

Shortly afterwards, on 3 January 1945, American artillery bombarded the town again, this time hitting the cellar of Sylvain Mérenne's building, where the resident's family and a neighbour, Clotilde Douny, had taken refuge. A shell penetrated the shelter, hitting the opposite wall and seriously injuring several members of the family as well as Clotilde. Clotilde, aged 68 at the time, had her legs blown off and died during the night. The youngest member of the family, Jeannine Merenne, aged 4, was also seriously hit by the shell and was transferred to the Beho field hospital. The unfortunate young victim breathed her last a few hours later. Her brother Roger, born in 1936, was wounded in the head, and her mother, Joséphine Silliate, whose body was riddled with shrapnel and who was to live with it for the rest of her life, survived forever scarred by these visions of horror.