On British Soil: Hartlepool, 16 December, 1914

Article

By John Sadler, published 19th November 2014

Heugh Battery, a Victorian survivor, received a new lease of life in 1908 when introduction of an improved Vickers 6-inch Mark VII gun greatly added to earlier, far less telling firepower. The Victorian pile was refurbished two years later and a pair of the new cannon installed. In 1907, the smaller Lighthouse Battery, lying a short distance south on the very tip of the Headland, was also equipped with one of these newer guns.

Wary of encountering the Royal Navy in a major fight, the German Home Fleet had, in 1914, adopted a more peripheral strategy involving U-boats, mine-laying and coastal raiding. In November, Great Yarmouth had been shelled, a mere pinprick but this emboldened Admiral von Ingenohl to devise a more ambitious plan for an attack on Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby. These exposed east-coast ports were sufficiently remote from any major concentration of British warships and the raiders would comprise only a portion of the Kaiser's squadron, the remainder lurking in wait to ambush any rash pursuers...

This resource is FREE for Historian HA Members.

Non HA Members can get instant access for £2.49

Add to Basket Join the HA