# The Bombardment of the Hartlepools 16th Dec 1914



## Pat Thompson

Good Morning All,

Today is the 95th aniversary of the action. I have a particular interest in this in that my maternal Great Grandmother "Margaret Brennan" was killed in the aforesaid action. The Brennans lived in Belk Street, adjacent to the Hartlepool Football Club's Victoria Ground and when the shelling started Belk Street was hit, Great Grandmama (Pretentious moi?) being a good Catholic (the name is the giveaway there) made a beeline for St Joseph's Church and was killed by one of the shells, had she stayed where she was she would have (allegedly) been ok. My Grandfather always maintained that that cured him of religeon (is that how one spells it 'cos it doesn't look right, again pretentious moi) for life. I think that must have been genetically imprinted onto me. Belk Street still stands and shows little effects of the bombardment and there are pictures of Belk Street in the attachment.

A football fanatic (NOT ME) might think that this was a pre-emptive strike by the Germans terified at the possibility of ever meeting Hartlepool's United (or "Exited" as my Grandfather used to call them) in the World Cup, a cynic might suggest that it was an attack on the Empire, British West Hartlepool and all that, but I like to think that this is the story that the "Terminator" series was based on and that the strike was an attempt to prevent ME ever happening, paranoid moi...............


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## Old Janner

Pat Thompson said:


> Good Morning All,
> 
> Today is the 95th aniversary of the action. I have a particular interest in this in that my maternal Great Grandmother "Margaret Brennan" was killed in the aforesaid action. The Brennans lived in Belk Street, adjacent to the Hartlepool Football Club's Victoria Ground and when the shelling started Belk Street was hit, Great Grandmama (Pretentious moi?) being a good Catholic (the name is the giveaway there) made a beeline for St Joseph's Church and was killed by one of the shells, had she stayed where she was she would have (allegedly) been ok. My Grandfather always maintained that that cured him of religeon (is that how one spells it 'cos it doesn't look right, again pretentious moi) for life. I think that must have been genetically imprinted onto me. Belk Street still stands and shows little effects of the bombardment and there are pictures of Belk Street in the attachment.
> 
> A football fanatic (NOT ME) might think that this was a pre-emptive strike by the Germans terified at the possibility of ever meeting Hartlepool's United (or "Exited" as my Grandfather used to call them) in the World Cup, a cynic might suggest that it was an attack on the Empire, British West Hartlepool and all that, but I like to think that this is the story that the "Terminator" series was based on and that the strike was an attempt to prevent ME ever happening, paranoid moi...............


Pat now tell us who hung the Monkey ?


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## Pat Thompson

Greetings Old Janner,

Never forget that we, the Hartlepudlians, were hanging them when you were acting like them. That snipe aside, do have a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.


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## John Cassels

Hartlepool was one of my favourite discharge ports on the ore carriers.

Always sure of a week alongside even when they were working flat out.


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## chadburn

I had not realised until I read a recent article that the Germans put over 1,000 shells into Hartlepool on that fateful day, one of the "smaller" one's is in the Hartlepool Maritime Museum. To see one of the large one's you need to travel on the Scarborough to Helmsley road, on the right hand side there is one stood at the side of the road with a notice explaining that the shell was fired off Scarborough and landed in the village which is about 13miles inland, if I remember correctly the village is called Beadlam. ( I bet there was that day)


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## Orbitaman

My connection to the bombardment is through my Grandfather, who was a gunner at the Heugh Battery on the day of the bombardment. His memories were off watching shells fired from the battery 'bouncing' off the armour on the German warships and thinking to himself what a waste of time and money firing at the ships was.
He also recalled his younger sister coming to the battery to pick up his pay as it was payday, with a message from his mother to the effect that "Were they aware of the damage they were doing in the town with their guns!"
whether this second part is true or not, I don't know, but I would like to think it was.
Just out of interest, today's anniversary falls on a Wednesday - the same day of the week the bombardment took place on.


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## eriskay

The bell from the large German Battlecruiser (Schlachkreuzer) SMS Derfflinger may be seen outside the local Church on the Hebridean island of Eriskay. It was brought there in the 1960s from Clydebank and has been there ever since, attracting much attention from tourists and visitors. 

Derfflinger was the last of the WWI Imperial German Navy's High Seas fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow to be raised in a complicated salvage operation, having already lain beneath these cold waters for twenty years. However, just as the complex operation was completed and she was being prepared for towing, upside down, to the breakers at Inverkeithing, WWII broke out and the operation was abandoned. She lay for the whole of WWII, upside down in Scapa Flow, near Cava Island, with a small crew resident on board at all times to 'man the pumps and compressors' that were keeping the giant vessel afloat. In 1946, the vessel was manouvered, still upside down, onto a floating drydock that was also, fortuitously, going for scrapping, in what must have been a supremely difficult operation. Although some reports give the destination as the East coast, I believe she was broken up in Dalmuir on the Clyde. Thus, the ship that spent one world war the right way up and another the wrong way up.


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## Old Janner

Pat Thompson said:


> Greetings Old Janner,
> 
> Never forget that we, the Hartlepudlians, were hanging them when you were acting like them. That snipe aside, do have a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.


Thanks Pat same to you. I only sailed with one guy from Hartlepool and he was from chineese descendents name of "Wong" good guy. The lads mostly geordies, liked to tell him that the monkey was hung in the football field as they thought it was a German spy, he used to go in a uproar, No hang de f-----g monkey, not true!


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## Geoff Clode

From a real Chimp_ choker! There is a plaque where the first shell fell in the war near the Lighthouse. We love the monkey crack, two of the local Rugby teams have a hung monkey on their ties!


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