#zonnebeke

Sep 1917 AWM E00761

Members of the 50th Battalion in an old trench behind a wrecked German pillbox near Zonnebeke, in the Ypres Salient. Identified: 612 Private (Pte) A A Young (1); unidentified (2); 3154 Pte O M Eatts (3); 2482 Sergeant (Sgt) F T Slade (4); 3306 Pte C Farrel (5); unidentified (6); unidentified (7); unidentified (8); 2260 Pte G Stanford (9); 6340 Pte A C Nausen (10); 3035 Pte E Hanna (11); 2052 Pte Hienceslater (12); unidentified (13); unidentified (13A); unidentified (14); unidentified (15); unidentified (16); unidentified (17); 3236 Lance Corporal (LCpl) Bartsch (18); 1949 Pte H T Martin (19); unidentified (20); unidentified (21); 273 LCpl G Carmichael (22); Corporal (Cpl) A M C Clark, 13th Battalion, Army Medical Corps (23); unidentified (24); 1703 Cpl A G Lehman (25); 2523 Sgt C Bruce (26); 6028 Cpl South (27). See E00761K for position of those named in this caption.

Harold Septimus Power (1878-1951) - Zonnebeke. Oct: 1917

Oil on canvasboard. 16 x 20 inches, 40.8 x 50.8 cm.

Estimate: £20,000-30,000.

Sold Christie’s, London, 8 Dec 2016 for £25,000 incl B.P.

Tyne Cot Cemetery and Visitors Center, Zonnebeke Belgium

April 2018 photo gallery online here. December 2018 photo gallery online here.

Tyne Cot Cemetery and Visitors Center

Located in the Ypres Salient, Tyne Cot is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth soldiers in the world. The site takes its name from the cottages of Tyneside England, of which the many bunkers of the German Flandern I Stellung fortified position reminded the British soldiers. A number of these bunkers, sunk into the mud during the Battle of Passchendaele, are located in the grounds of the cemetery including the largest of the bunkers over which Cross of Sacrifice was built. The inscription on the cross reads:

THIS WAS THE TYNE COT BLOCKHOUSE CAPTURED BY THE 3RD AUSTRALIAN DIVISION 4TH OCTOBER 1917

11.965 men are buried at Tyne Cot including one French soldier and 4 German soldiers. 

In addition to the cemetery is the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing. 34,959 names are inscribed on the stone wall on the east side of the cemetery site. Due to the horrific nature of the fighting in the Ypres Salient, especially the mire and artillery shells of the Battle of Passchendaele, thousands of men were never found after the fighting. Many of those that were found were completely unidentifiable. The names of those that went missing after August 15 1917 are included on the wall at Tyne Cot. The rest are inscribed on the Menin Gate in Ypres.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to visit Tyne Cot three times now in the last two years. It’s an amazing site, incredibly large and very well kept. The visitors center is not to be missed if you can visit during normal hours. But visiting the cemetery and memorial after hours, especially at dusk, is a somber and sobering experience. So many men forever at rest under their headstone, so many more with their name on the wall most likely never to be found, and all with families whose soldier never came home once the Great War ended.

Oct 12 1917 "The morning after the first battle of Paschendaele [Paschendale], Australian Infantry wounded around a blockhouse near the site of Zonnebeke Railway Station,12 October 1917 1 negative : glass ; full plate."

"According to Robert Dixon this is a composite image, one of four versions with different "sunburst" formations in the clouds created from originally separate negatives. See also File:Morning a Passchendaele. Frank Hurley (glass negative).jpg. This photograph was part of an exhibition of Hurley's photographs at The Kodak Salon, George Street, Sydney, in early 1919."

Colourized Picture