page_title: 1st Durham Volunteer Artillery
section_title: Raid on Hartlepool
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Durham Volunteer Artillery / World War I / Raid on Hartlepool
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Lancelot Robson V.D.D.L., Commanding Durham R.G.A. (Royal Garrison Artillery), Fire Commander, Hartlepool Batteries, Dec. 16th 1914. The bombardment of the Hartlepools by Germany took place on this date, the batteries being one of the main targets. It was the first time British civilians were in the line of enemy fire during a World War. HAPMG&#160;: 1972.75.11 For more information about the Hartlepool Batteries please visit http://www.heughbattery.com/ Images from Hartlepool Cultural Services that are part of The Commons on Flickr are labeled 'no known copyright restrictions' indicating that Hartlepool Cultural Services is unaware of any current copyright restrictions on these images either because the copyright is waived or the term of copyright has expired. Commercial use of images is not permitted. Applications for commercial use or for higher quality reproductions should be made to Hartlepool Cultural Services, Sir William Gray House, Clarence Road, Hartlepool, TS24 8BT. When using the images please credit 'Hartlepool Cultural Services'.
context_page_description: The 1st Durham Volunteer Artillery was a unit of Britain's Volunteer Force and Territorial Army from 1860 to 1956. During World War I, it was the only coastal defence unit to engage the enemy, and it also trained siege gunners for service on the Western Front.
context_section_description: On the morning of 16 December 1914, a German naval force under Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper approached the coast of North East England to mount a Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby. The battle cruisers SMS Seydlitz and SMS Moltke, with the armoured cruiser SMS Blücher, concentrated on Hartlepool, which was a base for light Royal Navy warships. The port was defended by two batteries. On the day in question, 11 officers and 155 other ranks of the Durham RGA were manning Heugh Battery (two 6-inch guns manned by No 4 Company) and Lighthouse Battery (one 6-inch gun).
  As was normal practice, the gunners 'stood to' at 06.30 and so were ready for action when the German warships approached. The Germans planned to bombard the batteries for 15 minutes to suppress them before turning the attention to the town. The Seydlitz opened fire at 08.10 and Lt-Col Robson rushed from his home to take up his post as Fire Commander and Battery Medical Officer at Heugh Battery. The first shell cut the Fire Commander's telephone lines, so the whole action was fought by the Battery Commanders on their own under standing orders. At ranges of 4000 to 5000 yards the German shells fell round the batteries without scoring a direct hit. Heugh Battery engaged first the Seydlitz and then the Moltke until they passed out of its arc of fire, and then concentrated on the stationary Blucher which was firing at Lighthouse Battery. Lighthouse Battery scored a direct hit on Blucher's forebridge, disabling two guns of the secondary armament, but suffered a number of misfires due to an electrical fault.
  The action ended at 08.52 when the batteries fired their last rounds at 9200 yards' range at the withdrawing warships. The Germans had fired 1150 shells, killing 112 and wounding over 200 civilians and doing extensive damage to the town and docks. The Durham RGA suffered two killed, and in firing a total of 123 rounds had inflicted at least seven direct hits, killing 8 German seamen and wounding four.
  The bombardment of civilian targets caused great outrage among the British public at the time. The commanding officer and three gun captains of the Durham RGA were later decorated, Lt-Col Robson receiving a Distinguished Service Order, Sgt T. Douthwaite a Distinguished Conduct Medal for extracting a live cartridge from the breech of the Lighthouse Battery gun after a misfire, and Acting Bombardier J.J. Hope and Bombardier F.W. Mallin each received the Military Medal. These were the first two MMs to be gazetted after the institution of the award in April 1916. Hope's medal was the first MM minted, and the first to be presented. In 1920, all members of the Durham RGA in action that day were made eligible for the British War Medal, normally only awarded to those who saw active service overseas.
caption: Portrait photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Lancelot Robson V.D.D.L., Commanding Durham R.G.A. (Royal Garrison Artillery), Fire Commander, Hartlepool Batteries, Dec. 16th 1914. The bombardment of the (5633824453)
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