watched two British destroyers and two submarines, which had been lying in the harbor, put out after the German force.  The latter by that time had started off, dropping in its wake a number of floating mines.  This strategy resulted in the loss of the submarine D-5, which hit one of the mines and sank immediately.  The German cruiser Yorck was claimed by the British to have hit a mine also, with the result that she sank and carried down with her some 300 of her crew.  This was denied later by the German admiralty, and like all such controversies must remain a secret with the officials of both Governments.

Judged by material effects, this raid was a failure.  But in view of the fact that the Germans had shown that a squadron could actually elude the large number of British warships patrolling the North Sea, and was actually able to strike at the British coast, it was a moral victory for Germany.

“We must see clearly that in order to fight with success we must fight ruthlessly, in the proper meaning of the word.”  These were the words of Count Reventlow, when he heard the news of the defeat of the German squadron commanded by Von Spee off the Falkland Islands.  As a result, and in revenge for this defeat, the German admiralty planned a second raid on the coast towns of England.  The towns chosen for attack this time were Hartlepool, Scarborough, and Whitby.  The first of these was a city of 100,000 persons, and its principal business was shipbuilding.  Scarborough was nothing more than a seaside resort, to which each summer and at Christmas were attracted thousands of Englishmen who sought to spend their vacations near the water.  Whitby, though it had some attractions for holiday crowds, such as a quaint cathedral, was at most nothing more than a home port for a number of fishing boats.

It was claimed later by the Germans that these three towns, according to the accepted definitions in international law, were fortified ports, and consequently open to attack by hostile forces.  In reply the British claimed that there was nothing in any of the three which could bring them into that category.  This controversy is still another which must remain undecided.  There is, however, the fact that the information which the German Government had obtained about them, and which it made public, must necessarily have been less comprehensive than that supplied to the world at large by the British authorities.  Guidebooks, as well as tourists who have visited the place, reported that an old castle stood in Scarborough which in past centuries had been a fort, but which at the outbreak of the war was nothing more than a show place.  The only gun in place at the castle was an obsolete piece that had seen service in the Crimean War.  Whitby, in times of peace, at least, had not even such “armament.”