The German ships next turned seaward
and made for their home ports.
The scenes enacted in the three towns during the bombardment and
afterwards were tragic. Considering the fact, however, that the
persons under fire were civilians, many of them women and children,
their coolness was remarkable. They did not know what should be
done, for the thought of bombardment was the last thing that had
come into the minds of the authorities when England went to war,
and as a result no instructions for such an emergency had been
issued by the authorities. Some thought it best to stay within
doors, some thought it best to go into the streets. In Hartlepool
a large crowd gathered in the railway station, some fully dressed,
some only in night clothes.
Many of the women carried babies in their arms and were followed
by older children who clung to their skirts. Policemen led this
crowd out of the station and started them along a street which
would bring them out into the country, but while they were passing
the library they were showered by the stone work as it fell when hit
by the German shells. One shell, striking the street itself, killed
three of the six children who were fleeing along it in company with
their mother. Many other persons met deaths as tragic either within
their own homes or on the streets. St. Mary's Catholic Church as well
as the Church of St. Hilda were damaged, as were the shipyards and
the office of the local newspaper.
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