 Early in the First World War , the Royal Navy erected a signal station on Hirta , and daily communications with the mainland were established for the first time in the history of the islands . In a belated response , the German submarine SM U @-@ 90 arrived in Village Bay on the morning of 15 May 1918 and , after issuing a warning , started shelling the island . Seventy @-@ two shells were fired , and the wireless station was destroyed . The manse , church , and jetty storehouse were damaged , but there was no loss of life . One eyewitness recalled : " It wasn 't what you would call a bad submarine because it could have blowed every house down because they were all in a row there . He only wanted Admiralty property . One lamb was killed ... all the cattle ran from one side of the island to the other when they heard the shots . " 
