Vampire dugout The Vampire dugout ( known locally in Belgium as the Vampyr dugout ) , was a First World War underground brigade headquarters , located near the Belgian village of Zonnebeke . It was created below Flanders by the 171 Tunnelling Company of the Corps of Royal Engineers , after the Third Battle of Ypres / Battle of Passchendaele . Rediscovered in 2007 , it was the subject of a 2008 British television programme in the Channel 4 " Time Team " series , also shown on the Science Channel in the United States . The dugout , inaccessible to the public as it is located on private property , is inspected every year by the local battlefield historical society . Background . As the fixed siege early period of World War I gave way to a more mobile war , and the opposing sides developed better technology and tactics particularly in artillery , the need to protect troops within deeper and deeper shelters close to the frontlines developed . At the end of the Battle of Passchendaele , having retaken Passchendaele 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 . Needing shelter for their troops , the Allied High Command in January 1918 moved 25 , 000 specialist tunnellers and 50 , 000 attached infantry who had been preparing and taking part in the Battle of Messines from June 7 , 1917 , north to the Ypres Salient . There they dug almost 200 independent and connected structures at depths of into the blue - clay , which could accommodate from 50 men , to the largest at Wieltje and Hill 63 which could house 2 , 000 . What started out as simple deep dugouts turned over time , according to the original trench maps of the area , into hospitals , mess room s , chapels , kitchens , workshop s , blacksmiths , as well as bedroom s where exhausted soldiers could rest . The level of the activity can be gauged by the fact that by March 1918 , more people lived underground in the Ypres area than reside above ground in the town today . Connected by corridors measuring 6 ft 6in high by 4 ft wide , they were fitted with water pumps , but when the troops left within weeks of the war ending , they were slowly submerged . Construction . Vampire was built to house a brigade headquarters , of up to 50 men and one senior commanding officer . Located close to Polygon wood , it was named after the supply soldiers whose mission was to come out at night to re - supply troops in the front line . Dug over a period of four months by 171 Tunnelling Company , they used I beam s and reclaimed railway line in a D - type sett structure . This was then further reinforced , using stepped wooden horizontal beams . Vampire became operational from early April 1918 , first housing the 100th Brigade of the British 33rd Division , then the 16th King ' s Royal Rifle Corps and then the 9th Battalion Highland Light Infantry Regiment . But after only a few weeks , the dugout was lost when the Germans undertook the Battle of the Lys in April 1918 . It was recaptured in September 1918 , when its last occupants became the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment . After the war : 1920 onwards . After the cessation of hostilities in November 1918 , all the deep dugouts including Vampire were abandoned . After the removal of known munitions at the surface by military clean - up teams , the locals returned from 1920 to recover the upper sections of the wooden entrance steps for heat and building , and then filled the main shafts with rubble to enable the land to be returned to farming . Today , most dugouts are flooded , but this has preserved them , and they are now the most authentic relics of the Great War in Flanders . Brickworks development . The village and district of Zonnebeke and its five villages have the largest concentration of underground constructions , being located at the centre of the Passchendaele conflict . Secondly , the blue - clay is now being extracted for commercial purposes by the Terca Zonnebeke N . V . brickworks factory , meaning that the structures are now regularly found as the brickworks expands its commercial extraction activities . In 1983 , the Australian - built Bremen Redoubt was discovered at the rear of the brickworks . Opened to the public until 1998 , it is believed that its eventual collapse was due to drying support timbers . During archaeological excavations of the Augustinian abbey , a second dugout was discovered under Zonnebeke church . The outline of this dugout is marked in an archaeological garden within the church grounds . On February 21 , 1998 , a farmer ’ s wife disappeared into the ground while washing the windows . Beecham dugout was subsequently discovered less than from Tyne Cot Cemetery . It was made public in spring 2006 that the brickworks had received a licence for the extension of its blue - clay extraction zone . The Association for Battlefield Archaeology and Conservation , using maps compiled of 350 underground structures under the management of Belgian archaeologist Johan Vandewalle and British TV producer Peter Barton , showed that at least one structure was near to the proposed development zone , believed to be Vampire . Following discussion with local preservation , historic , council and state officials , the ABAC was allowed to start a scientific research project . They engaged the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Glasgow University to provide archaeological support , ( in light of the residence of the Highland Light Infantry ) . Rediscovery . Following further map analysis in 2006 , in the summer of 2007 , a joint Belgian / British team led by Vandewalle and Barton , together with battlefield archaeologists Tony Pollard and Iain Banks with geophysicist Malcolm Weale went to Flanders to hunt for Vampire . Working from original trench maps , using geophysical survey and extensive trenching with a mechanical excavator , Pollard and Banks identified the entrance shaft of Vampire on the seventh and last day of their investigation . Excavations started in January 2008 , they returned in spring 2008 with a more extensive team , including members of Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service who used the task as a training exercise . With the aim of clearing the entrance shaft and reaching the bottom , and then investigating the dugout itself , they had a set period before the land would again need to be reclaimed by the farmer and used for sowing winter barley . As the clay proved too hard for certain extractions methods , and too soft for others , they eventually used a high - pressure firemans hose to liquify it , and then extract it by pump into a settlement tank ; this allowed the water to be re - cycled constantly . After three weeks of works and on reaching shaft bottom , the team used a remotely operated vehicle to assess the structure ' s rigidity . Additional props were then inserted by mining experts to ensure the safety of the research team . Successful in their endeavours , the whole investigation was filmed by Channel 4 , resulting in presenter Tony Robinson being filmed within the still - damp but highly preserved dugout . The research team found many signs of occupation by the British , but few from the Germans and no metal bed structures , suggesting that the British had had little time to enable fitting out of the dugout before it was overrun . The first estimate was that the dugout would measure by , but tunnels have been found over an area by . Designed by the British to house 50 troops , it is now estimated to have been home to at least 300 soldiers in an underground village . Whether extended by the British or the Germans will take further investigation , although signs of construction in progress have been found throughout the workings . Status . With preservation in mind , the Vampire dugout entrance shaft was covered , and the dugout allowed to refill with water . Preserved in this manner for 90 years , it was felt that this was the best course of action . This was in light of previous experience with similar structures , such as the Bremen Redoubt , lost due to timber degradation in the dry atmosphere . Because of their age and related safety concerns , historical significance and the collapse of the Bremen Redoubt , dugouts are generally not accessible to the public . A lifelike reconstruction has been built in the museum in Passchendaele . Vampire , inaccessible to the public as it is located on private property , is inspected every year by the local battlefield historical society . Future . As the brickworks in Zonnebeke expands , and as the land in which Vampire sits is designated as a potential future quarrying area , the dugouts ' future is uncertain . Even if it is preserved , the quarrying works could threaten its future , due to the egress of water from the nearby works creating cracks in the blue - clay . These three battalions were the three constituent battalions of 100 Brigade