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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 171st Tunnelling Company of the Corps of Royal Engineers,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Corps History - Part 14: The Corps and the First World War (1914-18) )〕 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 7 June 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 rooms, chapels, kitchens, workshops, blacksmiths, as well as bedrooms 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vampire dugout」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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