From the Dec. 15, 2015, ChronicleLive (UK) "Bombardment of Hartlepool in First World War to be marked by new museum gallery" by Tony Henderson.
This was the German Navy's first attack on a North East Town during the war. just after 8 am on December 16, 1914, German warships commenced a bombardment of over a thousand shells on Hartlepool, killing 130 civilian and military personnel. and wounding more than five hundred.
The Hough Gun Battery on Headland returned their fire as best they could in what was the only battle to be fought on British soil during the war.
One of the battery's soldiers, Theo Jons of the Durham Light Infantry, became the first British soldier to be killed by the enemy on British soil.
There is a new permanent display at the Museum of Hartlepool. It will have the role of the 130 killed at the battle as well as the "Bombardment Clock" which stopped when it was hit by a shell fragment. In addition, it has a 6-inch shell fired by the German battlecruiser Blucher.
The German ships also included the Seydlitz and Moltke.
--DaCoot
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