  Very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray observations have proven to be very
successful in localizing Galactic acceleration sites of VHE particles.
Observations of shell-type supernova remnants have confirmed that particles are
accelerated to VHE energies in supernova blast waves; the interpretation of the
gamma-ray data in terms of hadronic or leptonic particle components in these
objects relies nevertheless strongly on input from X-ray observations. The
largest identified Galactic VHE source class consists of pulsar wind nebulae,
as detected in X-rays. Many of the remaining VHE sources remain however
unidentified until now. With X-ray observations of these enigmatic "dark"
objects one hopes to solve the following questions: What is the astrophysical
nature of these sources? Are they predominantly electron or hadron
accelerators? And what is their contribution to the overall cosmic ray energy
budget? The paper aims to provide an overview over the identification status of
the Galactic VHE source population.
