There there was a small fort, with a battery of
old-fashioned guns, and off the shore was a small British flotilla, a
gunboat and two destroyers. The three battle cruisers among the German
raiders opened fire. The little British fleet did what they could but
were quickly driven off. The German ships then approached the shore and
fired on the English battery, the first fight with a foreign foe in
England since 1690. The British battery consisted of some territorials
who stood without wavering to their guns and kept up for half an hour a
furious cannonading. A great deal of damage was done; churches,
hospitals, workhouses and schools were all hit. The total death roll was
119, and the wounded over 300. Six hundred houses were damaged or
destroyed, but there was a great deal of heroism, not only among the
territorials, but among the inhabitants of the town, and when the last
shots were fired all turned to the work of relief.
Somewhere between nine and ten o'clock the bold German fleet started for
home. The British Grand Fleet had been notified of the raid and two
battle cruiser squadrons were hurrying to intercept them. But the
weather had thickened and the waters of the North Sea were covered with
fog belts stretching for hundreds of miles. And so the raiders returned
safe to receive their Iron Crosses.
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