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CODE:
A002 
UK
£18 Part Two of the War of the Yorkshire Gurkhas. The full accounts of the German naval bombardments against Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool on Wednesday, 16th December 1914, and their aftermaths. Featuring the personal testimony of the survivors, 36 contemporary street maps and over 440 photographs. Also features comprehensive indexes of the dead, injured, street damage, shipping lost to mines in the North Sea and a full diary of German attacks against the British mainland from 1914 to 1918.
THE MOST COMPLETE ACCOUNT EVER PUBLISHED - NOW A BBC DOCUMENTARY
Cover Blurb:
Under the cover of darkness a powerful German naval battle group negotiated the hazardous minefields of the North Sea, hell-bent on destruction, its target the still slumbering north-east coastal towns of Scarborough and Hartlepool. By early morning the battle group had divided; three battle-cruisers steamed north, two battle-cruisers and a light cruiser steamed south. Sheltered from prying eyes by the velvet darkness they advanced unopposed.
As dawn broke the vessels, shrouded by a hell-sent bank of early morning mist - typical to the north-east coast - steamed to meet fate. Like harbingers of doom the ships, hulking masses of cold grey steel, silhouetted against the grey rolling mist, steamed southward, a mile off shore and parallel to it. As the bow of the leading vessel pierced the cloak of invisibility unwittingly supplied by mother nature, its Captain raised his field-glasses and surveyed the scenic tranquillity of the town's dual bays.
High on the cliffs, north of the town, the attention of three workmen engaged on cottage renovations was caught by movement out at sea; the warships. The men were struck by the closeness of the vessels to the shore. As the light increased the ships moved stealthily southward, towards the town, the smaller vessel leading the way. The speed of the ships gradually increased, the smoke from their funnels passing from grey to black, a dense, heavy cloud trailing in their wake. Nothing stood between the German battleships and the gentle, hushed Yorkshire coast.
Aboard the leading battle-cruiser the Captain of the 'Von der Tann', satisfied, lowered his field-glasses, turned slightly and barked an order to his battle-ready gun crews: "FEUER GEBEN!"The giant naval guns opened fire with a thunderous broadside, their barrels erupting in great gouts of angry crimson flame. Several hundred yards away the order was repeated on the bridge of the 'Derfflinger' and a split second later her guns echoed that first thunderous broadside.
The day was Wednesday. The date was the 16th of December 1914. The time was eight o'clock. The place was Scarborough, the 'Queen of the Yorkshire Coast' . . . and death had come calling!
Title: BOMBARDMENT! The Day The East Coast Bled
ISBN: 0-9535204-1-2
Author: Mark Marsay
Genre: History/First World War
Length: 544 pages - black and white - 440 illustrations
Size: 156mm x 234mm (portrait - large format)
Cover: paperback - full colour
The shattered remains of the magnificent Grand Hotel after the German bombardment of 16th December 1914.
The shattered interior of Petch's Joinery shop on Victoria Road, Scarborough after the German bombardment of 16th December 1914.
One of the houses on Cleveland Terrace in Whitby, left destroyed after the German bombardment of 16th December 1914.
A damaged railway wagon in the sidings at Hartlepool after the German bombardment of 16th December 1914.
A local 'bobby' and two Green Howards (garrisoned in the town) on Hartlepool beach with shells after the German bombardment of 16th December 1914.
