Aerial Bombardment of Hartlepool: The First Raid
Zeppelin attack on 8 August 1916
From: 08-Aug-1916
Civil Parish: Hartlepool
What we would now call bombing was called Aerial Bombardment during the First World War. Between 1916 and 1918, German Zeppelins took part in a series of bombing raids on ports and coastal towns in County Durham. Hartlepool was attacked three times.
The First Raid, 8th August 1916
On 8 August 1916, a Zeppelin crossed the coast and dropped two bombs in a field at Longhill, damaging some houses nearby, and then moved away from Hartlepool.
Sources used:
1901 Census
1911 Census
John W. Perrin, Zeppelin Listening Posts, in Maureen Anderson ed., Aspects of Teeside (2002) pp. 90-98
http://hhtandn.org/events/event/32/zeppelin-raids-on-hartlepool-during-the-first-world-war
http://www.aeroconservancy.com/pyott.htm
http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/memorial-unveiled-to-first-world-war-pilot-who-shot-down-zeppelin-which-attacked-hartlepool-1-7248350
http://www.nelsam.org.uk/NEAR/Squadrons/Histories/36Sqn.htm
Contributed by George Muirhead
