Hartlepool Bombardment: How it unfolded on 16 December 1914

Summary

Hartlepool Bombardment: 16 December 1914
First major attack on British soil of WW1
More than 1,000 shells fired over 40 minutes
Scarborough and Whitby also attacked

Live Reporting

Kristie Kinghorn

'Thought it was thunder'published at 09:20 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Edgar Jones remembers walking to school when he heard the ships: "...we heard this, what we thought then, was thunder - bing, bang, bong, you know, and a battleship of the German Navy, the Blucher, was firing shells along the coast."
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
First-hand accounts recordedpublished at 09:16 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
As part of the WW1 At Home project, 80 hours of audio was found in Teesside Archives., external
The interviews were recorded in the 1980s and featured people who were teenagers at the time of the attack speaking about their experiences.
Here follow some of the accounts from those recordings.
People emerged from their homespublished at 09:11 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
In Hartlepool, people began to appear from the shelter of their houses, helping to dig out those around them who were injured.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
The clean-up began.
Whitby also came under attackpublished at 09:00 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
At about 09:00, Whitby felt the weight of the German broadsides as they steamed past the quiet fishing port heading for a rendezvous with the rest of their battle group who had attacked Hartlepool.
Seven people in Whitby died (although only three were ever officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the bombardment).
Young men in their droves rushed to their local recruitment offices to 'avenge' Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool.
In just 30 minutes on that cold December morning, the Great War had finally become a harsh and bitter reality for the people of Scarborough and Whitby.
Bombardment endspublished at 08:53 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
The bombardment of Hartlepool ends.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
German ships withdrewpublished at 08:51 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Shortly before 09:00 the German squadron fired its last shell and as quickly as it had appeared, it withdrew into the mists of the North Sea., external
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
They left 130 people dead including nine soldiers, seven sailors, 15 children and 467 wounded. Seven churches, ten public buildings, five hotels and more than 300 houses were damaged.
More than 1,000 shells firedpublished at 08:46 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
During the 40 minute attack, 1,150 shells were fired, destroying large areas of Hartlepool.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
This unexploded shell was found in the town's railway sidings.
Shells came 'fast as furious'published at 08:40 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Myra Docherty, who was a girl at the time of the attack, remembers being told the "Germans have landed" and running from her home towards the countryside for safety., external
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
She said the shells were coming "fast and furious" as they ran for their lives.
Soldiers returned fire from batterypublished at 08:36 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
When the German warships shelled Hartlepool, the soldiers manning the Heugh Battery returned fire in anger at the three German cruisers in a fierce battle.
This battery was the only one in the country to have directly engaged the enemy during World War One, external.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
But the Germans did not escape completely unscathed, the Heugh battery had fired 123 rounds mainly at the Blucher, smashing her fore-bridge, damaging some of its guns and killing nine.
Attack on Scarborough lasted 30 minutespublished at 08:31 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
It wasn't just Hartlepool which came under fire.
That fateful morning 18 people fell victim to the German attack in Scarborough, including 14-month-old baby boy John Shields Ryalls and shoemaker Henry Harland.
Image source, Great Northern Publishing
The attack lasted some 30 minutes.
First civilian fatalitiespublished at 08:25 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Among the first civilian fatalities of the bombardment were Hilda Horsley, a 17-year-old tailoress who was on her way to work, sisters Annie and Florence Kay who lived at 19 Cliff Terrace, and Salvation Army adjutant William G Avery.
This photo shows Mr Avery, his wife and five children in 1903.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
First soldier killedpublished at 08:21 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Amongst the dead was the first soldier to be killed on British soil during the conflict - Theophilus Jones, a 29-year-old private in the Durham Light Infantry (DLI).
On the morning of the bombardment, Pte Jones left his homes on Ashgrove Avenue and made his way to the Heugh Gun Battery.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
As the shells began to fall where the soldiers stood, the battery and the slipway were hit, fatally wounding four soldiers.
Civilians brought into frontlinepublished at 08:15 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
The first major home attack of World War One, it brought civilians unexpectedly on to the front line of battle.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
It left 114 civilians dead and hundreds more injured.
Many caught by surprisepublished at 08:12 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
When the shelling started, it caught many of the victims by surprise as they got ready to start their day.
Many children were having breakfast or heading for school when the attack began.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
Fathers who had already started their shifts dashed home to collect their families and a handful of belongings before fleeing on foot out into the County Durham countryside.
'All of a sudden they turned the guns round on the town'published at 08:06 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Jennie Hogg, who was a girl at the time of attack, remembers the moment the bombardment started: "I saw the boats out there. It was smashing watching them firing because they were firing out to sea.
"Then all of a sudden they turned the guns round on the town."
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
Ships emerged from the mistpublished at 08:01 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Three German cruisers, the Blucher, Seydlitz and Moltke, emerged from the North Sea mist just before 08:00.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
The alarm was raised.
German navy decided to carry out raidpublished at 07:56 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Unable to face the British fleet in a full scale battle, the German navy decided to carry out a raid that would draw a smaller number of British battleships into an ambush in the North Sea, external.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
German warships left basepublished at 07:51 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Shortly after midnight, the German warships left their base and headed out across the North Sea.
Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information
Bombardment 'was significant'published at 07:44 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
Hartlepool museums manager Mark Simmons said the Hartlepool bombardment was significant because it led to the death of the first British soldier and first British civilian on home soil during the conflict as a result of enemy action and because of coastal defences being used.
He said that it was well known about in the North East but less so further afield and he believes that was because Scarborough was the place held up as the main victim for the purposes of recruitment.
Image source, Scarborough Museums Trust
He said: "It particularly resonates for the people of the North East. No one in Hartlepool was unaffected. People knew someone who was injured or killed. It had an impact on the psychology of the town. The bombardment will never be forgotten in the North East.
"If you go outside the North East, it doesn't have the resonance as much further away."
Postpublished at 07:36 Greenwich Mean Time 16 December 2014
We will tell the story of the bombardment as it happened 100 years ago over a 40-minute period in between 08:00 and 09:00.
Over the same period our colleagues on BBC Tees will tell the story of the attack in real time from the moment the first shell struck to the chaos and confusion left behind when the guns fell silent.
The story will be told through a mixture of the first-hand accounts of those who lived through the attack, pictures from Teesside Archives and look at how the centenary is being marked in the town today.