Vampire dugout
| Vampire dugout | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 50°52′15″N 2°57′37″E / 50.870799°N 2.960371°ECoordinates: 50°52′15″N 2°57′37″E / 50.870799°N 2.960371°E |
| Site information | |
| Open to the public |
No |
| Site history | |
| In use |
Battle of Passchendaele Battle of the Lys |
| Events | World War One |
| Garrison information | |
| Occupants | 100 Brigade, 33rd Division 16th King's Royal Rifle Corps 9th Battalion Highland Light Infantry German Empire 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment |
The Vampire dugout (known locally in Belgium as the Vampyr dugout), is a First World War underground shelter located near the Belgian village of Zonnebeke.
It was created as a British brigade headquarters in early 1918 by the 171st Tunnelling Company of the Royal Engineers after the Third Battle of Ypres/Battle of Passchendaele. Rediscovered in 2007, the Vampire dugout was the subject of a 2008 British television programme which was also broadcast abroad. The structure is inaccessible to the public, but inspected regularly by battlefield historians.
At the end of the Battle of Passchendaele, having expanded the Ypres Salient by retaking Passendale Ridge, the British were left with little natural shelter from the former woods and farms. The artillery of both sides had literally flattened the landscape. As the static nature of the conflict gave way to a more mobile war, and the opposing sides developed better technology and tactics, particularly in artillery, the need arose to protect troops within deeper and deeper shelters close to the frontline. What started out as simple blast shelters turned over time into subterranean hospitals, mess rooms, chapels, kitchens, workshops, blacksmiths, as well as bedrooms where exhausted soldiers could rest.
Needing shelter for their troops on Passendale Ridge, the Allied High Command in January 1918 moved 25,000 specialist tunnellers of the Royal Engineers and 50,000 attached infantry to the north-east of Ypres. Most of the men involved had prepared and taken part in the Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917), where they had dug 26 deep mines as well as nearly 200 individual shelter structures at depths of 30 metres (98 ft) into the local blue clay. These underground barracks built by the Royal Engineers could accommodate units from 50 men up to 2,000 as in the largest dugouts at Wieltje and Hill 63. Connected by corridors measuring 6 ft 6in high by 4 ft wide, the deep dugouts were fitted with water pumps to deal with the high groundwater tables in the area. The level of these World War I underground activities can be gauged by the fact that by March 1918, more people lived beneath the surface in the Ypres area than reside above ground in the town today.
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