nd made for their home ports.

The scenes enacted in the three towns during the bombardment and
afterwards were tragic. Considering the fact, however, that the
persons under fire were civilians, many of them women and children,
their coolness was remarkable. They did not know what should be
done, for the thought of bombardment was the last thing that had
come into the minds of the authorities when England went to war,
and as a result no instructions for such an emergency had been
issued by the authorities. Some thought it best to stay within
doors, some thought it best to go into the streets. In Hartlepool
a large crowd gathered in the railway station, some fully dressed,
some only in night clothes.

Many of the women carried babies in their arms and were followed
by older children who clung to their skirts. Policemen led this
crowd out of the station and started them along a street which
would bring them out into the country, but while they were passing
the library they were showered by the stone work as it fell when hit
by the German shells. One shell, striking the street itself, killed
three of the six children who were fleeing along it in company with
their mother. Many other persons met deaths as tragic either within
their own homes or on the streets. St. Mary's Catholic Church as well
as the Church of St. Hilda were damaged, as were the shipyards and
the office of the local newspaper. The destruction of the gas works
left the town in almost complete darkness for many nights afterward.
The authorities issued a proclamation ordering all citizens to
remain indoors for a time, and then began to count the number of
dead and injured. The first estimate gave the former as 22 and the
latter as 50, but subsequent reckoning showed that both figures
were too low.

In Scarborough most of the inhabitants were still in bed when the
bombardment started and for a few minutes did not become excited,
thinking the booming of the guns was the sound of thunder. But when
the shells began to drop on their houses they knew better. Many were
killed or wounded while they hastily got into their clothes. One
shell hit St. Martin's Church while communion was being held. Here,
too, the railway station was made the objective of many refugees,
and the police did what they could to send the women and children
out of range of fire by putting them on trains of extra length.
As in all such scenes there were humorous sides to it. One old
workman