The bombardment of the East Coast - the scene outside a Hartlepool Baptist Chapel. Scene painted by Fortunino Matania based on a sketch by fellow Sphere artist, G. H. Davis, showing the shelling of Hartlepool by German battle cruisers on the morning of 16 December 1914. The caption gives the following description: A shell coming from the sea hit the Baptist Chapel, smashing in a large portion of the upper part of the building; it then went clean through the building, hurtling into the roadway, from which it rebounded and crashed through the first-floor bedroom of the house, seen on the extreme right, killing a woman. As the shell hit the chapel, causing a haze of dust, men and women came rushing from all the houses around. One woman was struck down and fell forwards on to the road; a Territorial who rushed to her assistance had his rifle blown out of his hand. The scene outside the bombarded chapel was piteous in the extreme; all the windows were broken; the walls were bespattered with plaster, and masses of concrete were piled up within the railings of the chapel.