Mention the Great War of 1914-1919 and the first image that will probably come to mind for most people is of young men fighting in the trenches of France and Flanders, surviving appalling and inhuman conditions, only to be mown down by machine guns, blown to pieces by shells or die through sickness and wounds.

Millions of British soldiers died during the war, most of them on the Western Front fighting for ‘King and Country’, but what many people don’t realise is that the first casualties - men, women and children - of that war were on the British mainland here, in the North-East, just a few short months after the war had begun.

On the morning of 16th December 1914, six German battle-cruisers shelled Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby and a total of 152 people were killed or died of wounds as shells, many weighing up to a ton each, rained down on the unprotected towns.

Even to this day many people remain baffled as to why these towns should have been chosen and how the Germans got away unscathed. In his bestselling 500-page book, ‘Bombardment! The Day The East Coast Bled’, author and historian Mark Marsay provides the definitive account of the attacks, explains the reasons behind them, describes the carnage they left behind and follows the repercussions which arose in their aftermath. The book also contains hundreds of personal eye-witness accounts and over 400 photographs.

The night before the attacks (15th December 1914) German battleships, sailing in two groups, had steamed across the North Sea under cover of darkness. An advance battle group of six ships under Admiral von Hipper was supported by the main German fleet under Admiral von Ingenohl.

In the early hours of Wednesday 16th December screening ships of the German fleet came into contact with British warships under Vice-Admiral Warrender. Worried there would be a set-piece battle in which the German fleet would be outgunned, the main body of the fleet turned back to the safety of Cuxhaven, unwilling to engage the might of the British Navy.

However, von Hipper’s small battle group of six ships continued, unaware it no longer had full German naval support. The battle group was led through the dangerous North Sea minefields by U27. [British Admiralty charts showing the minefields had already fallen into German hands when the merchant vessel SS Glitra had been sunk off Norway by U17 - this was Britain’s first U-boat victim.] Exiting the minefields safely, the German battle group split into two smaller groups; the Blücher, Seydlitz and Moltke, under the direct command of von Hipper, sailed northward for Hartlepool, whilst the Derfflinger and Von der Tann, supported by the light cruiser Kolberg, under the command of Hipper’s second-in-command Rear-Admiral Tapken, headed southward towards Scarborough.

At 8.00am three German battleships emerged from the rolling bank of early morning mist off Scarborough’s North Bay. The Derfflinger and Von der Tann immediately opened fire with their 11, 12 and 5.9 inch guns. The light cruiser Kolberg steamed on towards Flamborough Head and Filey to lay a protective screen of over 100 mines to prevent the pursuit of any British warships from the south.

The Von der Tann and Derfflinger traversed the castle headland into the South Bay raking the old town, Foreshore and Esplanade with armour-piercing, high explosive and shrapnel shells. Off White Nab (close to Cayton Bay, south of the town), they turned about, raised their guns and pummelled the outer suburbs of the town. People who had fled inland from the Foreshore and old town were now caught in the second half of the bombardment. Eye-witnesses reported a strange orangey-red glow to the early morning sky.

The attack lasted just twenty-five minutes. By the end of it over 500 shells had landed in the town, and 17 people had been killed (an 18th person died on Christmas Day from the wounds he had received during the attack). The oldest person to die was 65 year old Mary Prew (spelt ‘Prue’ on the War Memorial), killed on Belle Vue Street. The youngest was 14 month old John Ryalls at 22 Westbourne Park; his poor little skull smashed open, he died in agony ten minutes after being struck by shrapnel, cradled in the arms of his distraught father.

Panic ensued as people rushed to leave the town by any means possible - trains, cars, horse and cart, and on foot.