Action
To target British strategical and military coastal facilities would be a new tactics for the German Imperial Navy, a newly opened warfare gave the opportunity to prove an original plan. U-24 submarine under the command of Capitain Rudolf Schneider [4] was tasked to attack by the gunfire of its deck cannon the Harrington Coke factory owned by Workington Iron and Steel Company, producing toluen out of benzene used in production of TNT explosive. The factory was built in 1911 in a collaboration with the German companies, which was probably the reason why Harrington Coke should be targeted. Area was also expected to be unguarded by the British ships or coastal artillery.
In the middle of August 1915 U-24 slipped into the Irish Sea. On the dawn of 16 August 1915 the ship intercepted the coast Cumbria and surfaced. At about 4:50 crew entered the deck and opened fire from their deck 8.8 cm SK L/30 naval gun on the Harrington Coke factory near Lowca village. 55 shots had been fired, [5] about 13 of them hit the targeted site. Later the information spreaded that a quick thinking workers of the plant opened a relief valve which sent up an impressive plume of burning gas simullating an explosion fire, so the submariners thought they had damaged their target enough. About 20 shots were then fired on an inhabitated coast side of Lowca and Parton villages. U-24 was spotted at sea by two men in an unarmed fishing boat watching. [6] Action lasted for about 25 minutes, then U-24 left the coast to continue in hunt for enemy vessels.
Espionage affair
Numerous witnesses from the area reported, that they'd seen pure white light coming from the coast pressumably giving the signal to the German boat. [9] Suspicion felt on Mrs Hildegarde Burnyeat, wife of a local coal industry entrepreneur and member of the British Parliament William Burnyeat. She was born in 1875 as Hildegard Hedwig Augusta Anna Retzlaff in Culm, Eastern Prussia, [10] later lived in Berlin and then moved to Britain after marrying her husband in 1908, living in a house near Whitehaven port.
Possible relation between Mrs Burnyeat origin, place of residence and the U-boat attack were put together by the British intelligence which led to her arrest and charge of an espionage for the German Empire. In an atmosphere of the executions of a British nurse Edith Cavell in German-occupied Belgium [11] for being a British spy or some similar cases occurred in Britain affair was followed by the British press in a large scale. At first Hildegarde Burnyeat was sentenced to death penalty, soon after changed for life inprisonment. Her case was later reviewed and after a year, shortly after her husband William died on 8 May 1916 aged 42, she was set free of all charges and released. Suspicion could be based on truth: she was a daughter of a Prussian officer, her brother served in the German navy and after the war started she was defending German positions for war. [12]
Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them.
Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumberland, Cumbria, England. It lies by road 38 miles (61 km) south-west of Carlisle and 45 miles (72 km) to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It was the administrative seat of the former Borough of Copeland, and has a town council for the parish of Whitehaven. The population of the town was 23,986 at the 2011 census.
The American Theater was a theater of operations during World War II including all continental American territory, and extending 200 miles (320 km) into the ocean.
Events from the year 1915 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the First World War, which broke out in the August of the previous year.
Lowca is a village and civil parish in the English county of Cumbria, just to the north of the village of Moresby. It had a population of 773 in 2001, increasing to 888 at the 2011 Census.
Lowca had two railway stations that served the village of Lowca in the former county of Cumberland, England, which is now part of Cumbria.
The Battle of the Caribbean refers to a naval campaign waged during World War II that was part of the Battle of the Atlantic, from 1941 to 1945. German U-boats and Italian submarines attempted to disrupt the Allied supply of oil and other material. They sank shipping in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and attacked coastal targets in the Antilles. Improved Allied anti-submarine warfare eventually drove the Axis submarines out of the Caribbean region.
The Adriatic Campaign of World War I was a naval campaign fought between the Central Powers and the Mediterranean squadrons of Great Britain, France, the Kingdom of Italy, Australia, and the United States.
The U-boat campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Allies, largely in the seas around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean, as part of a mutual blockade between the German Empire and the United Kingdom.
United States Navy operations during World War I began on April 6, 1917, after the formal declaration of war on the German Empire. The United States Navy focused on countering enemy U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea while convoying men and supplies to France and Italy. Because of United States's late entry into the war, her capital ships never engaged the German fleet and few decisive submarine actions occurred.
Distington railway station was opened jointly by the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway (C&WJR) and the LNWR and Furness Joint Railway on 1 October 1879. It was situated on the northern edge of the village of Distington, Cumbria, England, where the C&WJR's north–south main line crossed the Joint Line's east–west Gilgarran Branch.
Harrington railway station, or Church Road halt, was a railway station in Harrington, Cumbria, England. It was opened by the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway (C&WJR) on the company's Harrington Branch which connected with the Lowca Light Railway at Rosehill to provide a through route from Lowca to Workington Central and beyond.
Rosehill railway station was opened by the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway (C&WJR) on the company's Harrington Branch which connected with the Lowca Light Railway (LLR) at Rosehill to provide a through route from Lowca to Workington Central and beyond.
The Harrington and Lowca Light Railway was a short railway on the coast of Cumberland, which is now part of Cumbria, England.
Parton Halt railway station was opened by the LNWR and FR Joint Railway in January 1915 and closed by the LMSR fourteen years later in 1929.
The Gilgarran Branch was a 7-mile-32-chain long (11.9 km) single track railway line connecting four separate railway companies in the former county of Cumberland, now part of Cumbria, England.
Micklam railway station served the fireclay mine and brickworks at Micklam, a short distance north of Lowca in the former county of Cumberland, England, which is now part of Cumbria.
Copperas Hill railway station served the small clifftop community of Copperas Hill, south of Harrington in the former county of Cumberland, England, which is now part of Cumbria.
Rose Hill Platform served workmen in the Rose Hill area of Harrington in the former county of Cumberland, England, which is now part of Cumbria.
The Battle of Funchal on 3 and 16 December 1916 was a series of two attacks by the Imperial German Navy submarine U-38 on the port of Funchal, capital of Madeira during World War I. German sailors succeeded to sink three Allied and one Portuguese ships and also bombarded the city causing several casualties and serious material damage before the Portuguese coastal batteries were able to respond
Germany 
United Kingdom 
Rudolf Schneider 