“Just to give you some idea of what I mean, the other night four German snipers were shot on our wire. The next night our men went out and brought one in who was near and get-at-able and buried him. They did it with just the same reverence and sadness as they do to our own dear fellows. I went to look at the grave the next morning, and one of the most uncouth-looking men in my company had placed a cross at the head of the grave, and had written on it:
“‘Here lies a German.
We don’t know his name.
For he died bravely fighting
For his Fatherland.’
“And under that, ‘got mitt uns’ (sic), that being the highest effort of all the men at German. Not bad for a bloodthirsty Briton, eh? Really that shows the spirit.”
CHAPTER XXIII
BOMBARDING UNDEFENDED CITIES
[THE GERMAN RAID ON THE ENGLISH COAST] — [MRS. KAUFFMAN’S DESCRIPTION] — [CANNONADING AT WHITBY] — [FREAKISH EFFECT OF SHELLS] — [FLIGHT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.]
The Ninth Hague Convention of 1907, to which both Germany and Great Britain gave their assent upon identical conditions, expressly forbids “the bombardment by naval forces of undefended ports, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings,” and by inference requires notice to be given previous to any such operations. Neither of these stipulations was observed by the German naval raiders who on December 16, 1914, bombarded the historic English towns of Hartlepool, Whitby and Scarborough. Appearing in the early morning, the Germans rained deadly shells upon these coast towns, none of which was of strategic importance, and only one protected by fortifications. The immediate result was the useless slaughter of many non-combatants—men and women and children, and the ruin of buildings, churches and historic monuments, including the ancient abbey of St. Hilda at Whitby.
The raid on Scarborough was described by Ruth Kauffman, the wife of the novelist, Reginald Wright Kauffman, in an interesting communication. The Kauffmans had been living for several years just outside of Cloughton, a village near Scarborough.