Memorial Zonnebeke Chateau Grounds

Memorial near the Passchendaele Museum dedicated to the approximately 2.300 soldiers who died in and around the Zonnebeke Chateau Grounds between 26 September and 4 Octobre 1917.

In 1917 the grounds of Zonnebeke Chateau were the site of death and destruction. What had once been a peaceful oasis was overwhelmed by unprecedented violence, becoming a hell on earth.

On 26 September 1917 THE Allies reached a completely devastated Zonnebeke. Eight days later they took the rest of the village. The Germans had planned a counter-offensive to begin on 4 October, called ‘Unternehmung Höhensturm’. The operation ended in catastrophe.

Thousands of men were killed in Zonnebeke between 26 September and 4 October. Losses were particularly high for the Germans Reserve Infantry Regiment 212, at more than 1.000 dead, woundes and captured. Most of the dead were buried were the fell. In what are now the chateau grounds, more than 170 Allied troops were found, mostly Australian and British. The majority could not be identified.
Hardly any details are available about the German exhumations. The final resting place of most of the Germans who died in Zonnebeke is unknown. A minority are now commemorated by name on a grave, or on a memorial to the missing.

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