Hartlepool::100yrs of German Naval Bombardment.

Discussion in 'World War 1' started by Diptangshu, Jan 8, 2015.

  1. Diptangshu

    Diptangshu Active Member

    Three German battleships the Seydlitz, Blucher and Moltke started shelling on the coastal towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby by surprising all in the morning of 16th Dec'14!
    Unfortunately HMS Forward and HMS Patrol both were in the vicinity but outgunned to the enemy ships. Heugh and Lighthouse Battery did their best, 100yrs ago, defending the English soil against the German Navy.
    http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-an...r/18/141218-hartlepool-bombardement-centenary
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2015
  2. aghart

    aghart Former Tank Commander Moderator

    The British naval plan for WWI was to blockade Germany and deny it use of the sea. The raid's on Hartlepool and Scarborough were simply demonstrations by the German Navy to show "we can put to sea and attack you whenever we want"
     
  3. Diptangshu

    Diptangshu Active Member

    A couple of things been indicated by one my friends (a retd Coastal Def guy) of the German naval attack on the English soil during the Great War, I just unaware of these.
    The raid of Yarmouth, probably the first naval bombardment on the English soil by any enemy ship during the Great War. However, the British Admiralty captured and accessed a German codebook for the prep of attack on the Dogger Bank. The RN that time was extremly busy to protecting the Empire by securing trade routes (IMTR).
    I think Britain did pocesses a very strong navy, she could attack the German navy, she had the potentiality to do so (you may recall the conflict of Jutland), but she unabled to do so because of the heavy German coastal defence system!
    But again, for the second time, I'm recalling the Heugh and Lighthouse Batteries, the way they defended The soil with their faulty ammos, just outstanding
     
  4. Interrogator#6

    Interrogator#6 Active Member

    If memory serves me, the reason for most of the decryption done by the English was due to a present they recieved from Russia: a copy of the German naval codes recovered from a sunk (scuddled?) cruiser in the Baltic.
     
  5. Diptangshu

    Diptangshu Active Member

    Hartlepool was more significant target than the Scarborough due to its population, extensive marchant naval docks and for its factories. Here the CDS (artilliery) was managed/operated by the Durham Royal Garrison Artillery which armed with 3nos BL 6'' Mk VII naval guns of which 2nos were at Heugh Battery and the rest one was with Lighthouse Battery.
    Battle Honors for the 11 officers and 155 personnels :
    * Lt Col Robson : DSO
    * Sgt Douthwaite : DCM
    * Bombardier J J Hope and F W Mallin : MM
    * All the rest members of the Durham RGA received : BWM
    Sgt Douthwaite extracted a Live Cartridge from the breech after a misfire of one BL 6'' of the Lighthouse Battery!
    Another important thing was the capturing of 3 digit Code Book by the British from sunk/captured vessel and copies were distributed as soon as they decoded by the British codebreakers. According to this, they sufficiently informed (by the eve of 14th Dec 1914) that the German naval force will appear soon and accordingly ordered Adm Jellicoe to send V Adm Beatty alongwith his sqadron from Scapa Flow.
    The German Account (translated) :
    http://www.gwpda.org/naval/kzsdec14.htm
     

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