The exploding shell of a French 75 mm. field gun blasts the crown from the tree of the Central Powers as the axe of Justice strikes its trunk. A background map shows British towns on the English Channel and Belgian and French cities shelled by German forces burning. A 1915 French postcard.
75, Turquie, Allemagne, Autriche, Turkey, Austria, Germany, Yarmouth, Hartlepool, Whitby, Scarborough, Ypres, Arras, Reims, LouvainMalheur aux ennemisTo the D...with the Enemy1914 1915Déposé. . . Tous Droits RéservésArtist LogoReverse:Edition Globe TrotterParisMarque Déposée Trade MarkCarte PostaleF. Bouchet, Éditeur-Imprimeur, 5bis, Rue Béranger, Paris (IIIe)Visé - Paris No. 1
"Three Zeppelins set out for England the following afternoon [March 13, 1918]. Over the North Sea, they were recalled to their bases in north Germany because of high winds. Already within sight of the English coast, one airship commander defied the order. He waited offshore for forty minutes for complete darkness, and then attacked West Hartlepool from above 16,000 feet. The unsuspecting town was brightly lighted. Many bombs found their mark, and nearly fifty people were killed or injured."
German Zeppelins had bombed England since 1915, but their effectiveness was diminished as British defenses improved, and their role was increasingly replaced by Gotha and other bombers. In early March, 1918 these were attacking Paris and other targets on the Western Front in preparation for Operation Michael, launched on March 21, 1918. Hartlepool, on the Yorkshire coast in northeast England, had been bombarded on December 16, 1914 by a German cruiser force.
The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, pp. 193–194, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991
1918-03-13, 1918, March, West Hartlepool, Hartlepool, Zeppelin, Zeppelin raid
