Memorial Engineers Chenois

At the Chenois cemetery there is a memorial to the victims of an exploded floating mine.

"Reminder of
Sub-lieutenant
Leon GOFINET
Sergeant
Norbert ADAM
The soldiers
August GOOSSENS
Auguste VANDRIESCHE
Jean BELLEMANS
Jean VAN DER EYCKEN
of the Genie
and machine gun
Jules MARBAIS
Died for the fatherland
on April 25, 1915,
buried in De Panne"

On April 25, 1915, a group of Engineers carried out a rare mission on the French border between De Panne and Bray-Dunes. Their boat sailed over a British floating mine, an explosive charge that was placed on or deep in the sea and automatically detonated when a ship or submarine approached her and of course also on any contact.
The explosion must have been enormous, killing the entire crew.
Years later (1921) Major Fontaine caused the bodies to be badly mutilated and thrown into the sea with the other debris. What remained was buried in the dunes between De Panne and Bray-Dunes, near the French border between the border posts
1 and 2. On December 7, 1922, the remains were exhumed and given a final resting place at the Belgian military cemetery in De Panne, others were repatriated to their native village.