EMPTY cigarette packets and beer bottles now litter the concrete base of the once mighty Heugh Battery - a testament to the magnetic appeal of this man-made windbreak to The Headland's bored teenagers.

But in 1914 the gun placement posed an altogether more immediate threat to the health of the good people of Hartlepool.

An innocent seaside postcard featuring the impressive coastal defences had fallen into German hands and, on the morning of December 16, 1914, three of its heaviest cruisers - Blucher, Seydlitz and Moltke - paid a non-too friendly visit.

On that fateful fog-bound morning they rained down 1,000 shells on the town - possibly using the battery as a range finder - and took the lives of 112 people.

The brave soldiers manning the battery replied with gusto, their backs up at such a brazen attack. The 25,000-ton battlecruiser Seydlitz was hit three times, one shell blowing a hole in its forward tunnel and another damaging the superstructure aft.

The slightly smaller battlecruiser Moltke was hit by a 100lb shell that destroyed several officers' cabins while the Blucher, a heavy armoured cruiser, suffered nine casualties and had two guns destroyed.

Thankfully, the battery's three mighty guns remained silent after that and were removed in 1956, but the people of Hartlepool have long memories.

Neil Forcer is a member of a dedicated band of enthusiasts, the Heugh Battery Trust, who, after protracted negotiations with Hartlepool Borough Council, now has a 25-year lease on the site.

They have secured £124,000 from the Lottery Heritage Fund to rebuild the battery's original wall and plan to use the lease to remove graffiti, erect a visitor centre and install three new guns.

Mr Forcer, who has also formed his own living history group, the Headland Re-enactment Society, said: "Like all the best ideas, this started off as a drunken conversation.

"We decided we wanted to turn the battery into a major tourist attraction, and with the First World War now part of the national curriculum, it would be a great place for local school kids to visit.

"We could stand here and tell children how German shells bounced off the gun casing and exploded in a back field killing a lone donkey - all that was left was the tail.

"We could tell them how two sisters watching the battle from their bedroom window were blown up by a German shell.

"Kids, and I think the public at large, love to hear how history changed the lives of normal people.

"It's not just about looking at some concrete holes and imagining the guns. Coming here, on a fog-bound day like today, you can imagine the fear of this attack.

"You can understand why, for weeks afterwards, people took to the fields and hid in barns, fearing a German invasion."

With the full wall expected to be finished by December, and the awe-inspiring return of massive artillery promised for the future, the Heugh Battery could once again play a vital part in Hartlepool's heritage.