Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-12-23
DARING RAID BY
GERMAN WARSHIPS
Leave Harbor and Shell Coast
Cities of England With
lmpunity.

IMMUNITY.
BRITISH FLEET PoWERLESS
TO PREVENT OPERATIONS
Enormous Damage inflicted, With
Great Loss of Life, and Raiding
Fleet Makes Good Its Escape-Be-
leved to Be the First of Series Con-
tempIated.
London, Dec. 17-Confiicting re-
ports from Hartlepool, Whitby and
Scarborough make it difficult to give
the exact number of dead. The
Chronicle announces that 4S were
killed and 116 wounded in the three
towns. A London Times dispatch
from Hartlepool says so soldiers and
civilians were killed in that town
alone and 4S bodies have been recov-
cred. The war office statement is
sued early in the evening gave the to-
tai as 81. The Evening Standard says
II were killed at Scarborough, while
another dispatch says 10 died at that
place. Reports seem to agree that
only two were killed at Whitby.
Berlin, Dec 17-An official an
nouncement issued here says:
Parts of our high seas fleet made
an attack on the English east coast
and bombarded December 16, early in
the morning, both fortified and coast
places at Scarborough and Hartlepool.
Regarding it's further course of action
no information can yet be given,
London, Dec. 17.-Germany daring
ly attacked England herself early in
the morning.
After dash across the North sea
on misty night, German flotilla
bombarded Hartlepool, Scarborough
and Whitby, unfortified cities on the
east coast of England, early in the
morning
: Some thirty women and men were
killed Churches were ruined, hotels,
dwellings and stores were destroyed
by the bombardment, which endured
40 minutes, after which the Germans
steamed northward from Scarborough
and escaped pursuing British cruisers.
The gun flashes indicated that four
big warships were firing. One sheSi
that has been picked up was IL inches
in diameter and 33 inches long.
Hundreds fled in panic while the in
vaders projectiles Numbered and
burst setting on fire the structures
they had set in ruins. Others, af-
frighted, took refuge in cellars.
Warshps Repel Raiders.
Hurriedly called by wireless, British
warships fastened from the nearest
points to attack the enemy But the
German cruiser force, made up OF
their fastest cruisers. escaped in the
mist from the British squadron.
The squadron which shelled Hartle-
pool. where the bombardment was
most destructive to life and property,
was composed, the admiralty announ-
ces of two battle cruisers and an ar
mored cruiser, while from four to six
light cruisers attacked Scarborough
and Whtby
Germans Escape in Fog.
The German squadron escaped prac-
tically unframed. The organized pur-
suit that drew England's great ships
from their stations at sea could not
catch up or cut off the fast raiders
The Germans had in their favor
heavy mist, which covered the.sea, and
they made rapid withdrawal after
raining shells on the coast towns for
about thirty minutes.
The only official mention of damage
to the raiders is contained in an OH
ciaI British statement which said the
batteries at Hartlepool had damaged
at least one of the vessels which aR-
peared there.
The Yorkshire Evening News prints
a dispatch to the effect that two Ger
man cruisers have been sunk. and that
British warships were damaged
Most Daring Raid of War.
It was the most daring and success
full exploit the Germans have per-
formed in the war; amazing in its saw
age thoroughness. All England is
alarmed and enraged because squad
ron of Germany's most dangerous war
craft was permitted to escape from the
Kiel canal and remain undetected long
enough to give Englishmen even a
slight experience of the horrors of war
that have come to Belgium and France.
There is fear that an invasion will
be attempted, put there is more reason
to believe that the devastating raid was
the first stroke of great coup.
Germany, it is positively known, has
been planning for weeks a concerted
rush of battle cruisers and dread
naughts from Helgoland and the mouth
and fra