Overview

This is the story of the small east coast town of Hornsea during and after the Great War. The war touched every aspect of life on the home Front and those who were left behind suffered terribly as the war dragged on. This study meticulously explores the problems, hardships and grief faced by the people of Hornsea and is a microcosm of the experience of the nation generally. Chapters one to five cover the experience of the population at home, many Hornsea families were interviewed by the author over a number of years and their photographs and memories' bring the text to life. Diaries and letters found in archives and in the possession of the people of Hornsea and surrounding areas highlight events that have long been forgotten, guns placed along the cliff top, Zeppelins roaring over Hornsea on their way to bomb Hull and the resulting chaos as anti-aircraft guns and searchlights lit up the night sky over Hornsea. The sky over Hull glowed red and the explosions of bombs and guns could be seen and heard clearly from Hornsea, after the raid the Zeppelins would roar over Hornsea once again with the resulting chaos of noise and lights, releasing any bombs they had not dropped on Hull. Eye witness accounts of these Zeppelin raids are featured in the text. Recruits were being trained in the town throughout the war and in the Hornsea Drill Hall one night a rifle was discharged by accident and blew the arm off one young man, the nurse who had to help hold him down as they amputated what was left of his arm has left a graphic description of her gruesome nights work. Thousands of troops were stationed in Hornsea and its surrounding areas to train, many of them met their future wives there. Others died in training of a number of ailments, one young man who could not take the strain anymore committed suicide, these men are all buried in Hornsea and the author has researched them all, even though they were not from that town. Many such unusual stories fill the first five chapters, from spy scares to people prosecuted for profiteering or ignoring the black-out regulations.

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9781912174997

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Barrie S Barnes, BA/Hons, M/Phil, was born in the city of Hull and now resides in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire. In his early life he worked in a number of varied occupations for 18 years and eventually joined the teaching profession, where he worked for 26 years, retiring in 2007. This is his tenth book, his first 'This Righteous War' coming out in 1990 and his ninth, 'Chaos in the Sand' came out in 2017. He continues to work on other manuscripts relating to British military history and is a tireless researcher as he records the experiences of the men and women who served in the World Wars. Barrie spent the 80s and 90s recording thousands of interviews with veterans and collecting manuscripts and images of the time. All of this information he weaves into a stunning narrative that gives us an insight into how the war affected ordinary people, from the boredom of basic training to the horror of the most terrible battles in human history, and how men survived the horrors of the battle-field as they watched their friends fall one by one, month after month, year after year. He has made it his task to make sure these memories are not forgotten by future generations and that their sacrifices shall not have been in vain.

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