WI The British Mount A Better Defence To The 1914 Bombardment of Hartlepool?

In December 1914, the German navy shelled a number of towns on the northeast coast of England, namely Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool. Of the three the only one able to mount a defence was Hartlepool but due to a combination of the Germans having the element of surprise, bad weather and plain old bad luck they didn't do a very good job of it. A rough breakdown of what happened is as follows

Forces:

* German:
-- SMS Seydlitz (Battlecruiser)
-- SMS Blucher (Armoured Cruiser)
-- SMS Moltke (Battlecruiser)

* British:
-- Heugh Battery (Coastal Battery, 2 BL 6-inch Mk VII naval guns)
-- Lighthouse Battery (Coastal Battery, 1 BL 6-inch Mk VII naval gun)
-- HMS Patrol (Scout Cruiser)
-- HMS Forward (Scout Cruiser)
-- HMS Doon (Destroyer)
-- HMS Test (Destroyer)
-- HMS Waveney (Destroyer)
-- HMS Moy (Destroyer)
-- HMS C9 (Submarine)

A Summary of What Happened According to Wikipedia:

Hartlepool was a more significant target than the resort town of Scarborough. The port had extensive civilian docks and factories and was defended by three BL 6 inch Mk VII naval guns on the seafront. Two guns were at Heugh Battery and one at Lighthouse Battery. The guns were manned by 11 officers and 155 local men of the Durham Royal Garrison Artillery.[8] The gun crews were warned at 04:30 of the possibility of an attack and issued live ammunition. At 07:46, they received word that large ships had been sighted and at 08:10, a bombardment of the town began. No warning had been given to naval patrols in the area, which were meant to be always on duty and the poor weather just before the raid meant that only four destroyers were on patrol, while two light cruisers and a submarine, which might otherwise have been out, remained in Hartlepool harbour. The destroyers HMS Doon, Test, Waveney and HMS Moy were on patrol when—at 07:45—Doon saw three large vessels approaching, which opened fire shortly after. The only weapons the destroyers had capable of damaging a large vessel were torpedoes; they were out of torpedo range and three destroyers turned away. Doon closed to 5,000 yd (2.5 nmi; 4.6 km), fired one torpedo which missed and retreated.[9]

The shore batteries remained confused about the approaching ships, until shells began to fall. Shells from the ships were fired at such short range that their fuses did not have time to set, so many failed to explode on impact or ricochetted into the town, because they were travelling horizontally, rather than plunging. Two shore guns fired at the leading ship, while the third fired at the last, smaller, vessel. The gunners were hampered by a rising cloud of smoke and dust around them, affecting visibility. They found their shells had no effect on the armoured sides of the ships, so instead aimed at masts and rigging. The accuracy of the third gun was sufficient to oblige Blücher to move behind the lighthouse to prevent further hits. Two of her 6-inch guns were disabled, the bridge and another 8 in (200 mm) gun were damaged.[10]

In the harbour, Captain Bruce of the light cruiser HMS Patrolattempted to get his ship to sea but the ship was struck by two 8-inch shells, forcing the captain to run her aground. The second cruiser HMS Forward had no steam in her boilers, so it could not move. The submarine HMS C9 followed Patrol to sea, but had to dive when shells started falling around it. By the time she got clear of the harbour, the German ships had gone. Commodore Roger Keyes commented afterwards, that a target of three stationary cruisers was exactly what the submarine had been intended to attack.[11] At 08:50, the German ships departed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Scarborough,_Hartlepool_and_Whitby#Raid

What if things hadn't been quite so one sided? What if Doon's torpedo hadn't missed? What if the shore batteries had reacted a bit faster, or started aiming at the more vulnerable parts if their targets, or Blucher hadn't managed to hide behind the lighthouse? What if Patrol and C9 had been able to join the fight? Would they have been able to send the German ships packing or even sink or disable one of them (probably Blucher)? And if they had done so, would it have made much difference in the grand scheme of things, beyond the propaganda value of the whole thing?
 
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I think the simple POD here is that the Naval Patrol were warned at the same time as the Artillery and that also this would mean that Beatty was warned and would be abroad with his BCs and supporting CLs and DDs - which were faster than

Another might be that RN commanders are left under no illusion that the loss of German BCs would be worth the exchange of several Destroyers particularly older ones such as those 4 DDs and that any attack must be pressed home with all the aggressiveness that would have been shown by their peers in the 2nd world war (who made african Prairie dogs look shy and retiring).

The loss of 1 or 2 or even heavy damage to 1 or 2 of those ships might put paid to the tactic of trying to sucker a squadron or 2 of British vessels into a trap (a tactic that did not works) or possibly place future such efforts in greater danger than was otherwise the case being of lesser strength.
 
The submarine HMS C9 followed Patrol to sea, but had to dive when shells started falling around it. By the time she got clear of the harbour, the German ships had gone. Commodore Roger Keyes commented afterwards, that a target of three stationary cruisers was exactly what the submarine had been intended to attack.
Simply have her out on exercise in the area?

C9 then fires her two 18-inch (45 cm) torpedo's at short range into SMS Seydlitz whose course ran right over C9, Seydlitz was hit twice one of them hitting the outer port side shaft causing it to bend and start to flail riping open the rear hull leading to slow uncontrollable flooding......
 
I think the simple POD here is that the Naval Patrol were warned at the same time as the Artillery and that also this would mean that Beatty was warned and would be abroad with his BCs and supporting CLs and DDs - which were faster than

Another might be that RN commanders are left under no illusion that the loss of German BCs would be worth the exchange of several Destroyers particularly older ones such as those 4 DDs and that any attack must be pressed home with all the aggressiveness that would have been shown by their peers in the 2nd world war (who made african Prairie dogs look shy and retiring).


Regarding the DDs, it should be noted that they were a lot smaller and weaker than their WWII counterparts. Weighing in at 544 to 580 tons, their displacement was less than two thirds that of a WWII corvette and as mentioned above the only weapons they had that could do anything to a large warship were their torpedoes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River-class_destroyer).

Maybe if all four got within range and fired both their torpedo tubes before retreating they could have done some damage.
 
Simply have her out on exercise in the area?

C9 then fires her two 18-inch (45 cm) torpedo's at short range into SMS Seydlitz whose course ran right over C9, Seydlitz was hit twice one of them hitting the outer port side shaft causing it to bend and start to flail riping open the rear hull leading to slow uncontrollable flooding......

Or.....have the other 2 escort her home only to be caught by the BCs of the Beatties force and totally overwhelmed before they can escape!
 
Regarding the DDs, it should be noted that they were a lot smaller and weaker than their WWII counterparts. Weighing in at 544 to 580 tons, their displacement was less than two thirds that of a WWII corvette and as mentioned above the only weapons they had that could do anything to a large warship were their torpedoes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River-class_destroyer).

Maybe if all four got within range and fired both their torpedo tubes before retreating they could have done some damage.

Yes they were 500 tons ships with a pair of 18" fish so close to closer range as it was only 1 fish was fired out of a possible 8

Even if all 4 are sunk the Germans would be left in no doubt that even DDs would challenge them.
 
Not to mention that the British press and propagandists would have a field day if one or two German capital ships got sunk by some itty bitty DDs that were each less than a quarter of their size. Especially if none of the destroyers were sunk.
 
Okay, I've come up with a scenario that involves the smallest POD and which I think would cause the biggest boost to national pride. Not sure how plausible it is though so let me know if it isn't.

The POD: Doon fires two torpedoes instead of one and they both hit one of the ship's somewhere important before she retreats as in OTL.

This sinks the ship in question, delaying the other two as they need to rescue the crew, plus having one of their number torpedoed makes them a lot more cautious. Nevertheless they continue with their mission but due to the delay the coastal artillery gun crews have got their rears into gear and HMS Patrol and HMS C9 are out of the harbour and ready to fight alongside the four destroyers, although HMS Forward is still building steam.

What follows is chaotic to say the least as the German ships try to shell Hartlepool while fending off the RN vessels and the coastal batteries who having had time to get organised give it their all. Another of the German vessels, one of the battlecruisers, is sunk by torpedoes, this time fired by C9 and either Patrol or Moy (both fired but only one hit and no one can tell which one it was), at which point the remaining ship, already seriously battered, finally retreats with HMS Forward in hot pursuit.

Of the other ships, Patrol, Doon and Test have lost crew, are taking on water and are laying too low to get into Hartlepool harbour but manage to limp to Middlesbrough for repairs, Moy has suffered some damage but nothing that impedes her ability to float, and Waveney has somehow managed to remain unharmed aside from splinter damage. Meanwhile the coastal batteries took a fair amount of damage and losses, although less than in OTL, while the town itself is largely undamaged aside from the areas nearest the batteries and two or three buildings elsewhere, adding up to less than a fifth of the damage done to Hartlepool in OTL.


(I also considered a variant where one of the German ships was crippled without being sunk and consequently captured by the Brits).
 
Dont think the torpedoes are going to be enough to sink them, what might happen is as already suggested, a hit to the props disables one of the German ships..

What happens then could be interesting, is the damaged ship abandoned by the rest or all are caught trying to get the damaged ship home followed by the RN units getting caught by the HSF.
 
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