From 1915, Zonnebeke was part of the German hinterland as the front line moved towards Ypres.With military operations fairly limited in Flanders in 1916 the Germans were busy in this area working on a defensive network of seven lines with pioneer troops and conscripted civil labourers constructing machine gun nests, bunkers and concrete shelters. This book accompanies the 2016 exhibitionBuilding the Front at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele and explores the methods used,materials and types of building constructed from hideouts to shelters, underground bunkers and machine gun posts to the creation of false trenches and painted windows and doors used to mislead Allied air reconnaisance.
