The Arts Educational School in the British Government

The Arts Educational School in the British Government

Why Did the British Government Decide to Evacuate Children From

Britain’s Major Cities at the Start of The Second World War?

When war began in 1939, Britain was not prepared for war. The idea of

aerial bombardment terrorized the public and the government soon

realised it was time to protect the children.

The government soon made plans to evacuate over 3 million infants and

youngsters to more rural places of safety. Alas, the government ended

up only evacuating around half this number. Children were evacuated

from major cities such as London and other important industrial cities

such as Liverpool and Birmingham. The government knew large cities

were key bombing targets as they contained the centres of

communications, docks, ports and railway lines. Anything, which if

bombed, would impede the countries ability to continue fighting.

But what were the reasons behind the fear of the government and

civilians? Why were people making such extreme precautions? Why were

people so afraid?

For one, the government and public alike has seen the devastation and

destruction suffered by innocent civilians during Hitler’s bombings of

Guernica in September 1937. Hitler needed and opportunity to test out

his planes and bombs and The Spanish Civil war was the perfect

opportunity. The attack on the town during the Spanish Civil war gave

Britain’s government and not to mention the rest of the world a taste

of the horrors fascism and what the rise of the dictators could

induce. Bombs from the German Luftwaffe were now focusing on civilian

targets. This had never been seen before and shocked an...

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...n moving children from there homes. They did this to

avoid a mass evacuation that would be panicked and not efficient.

People were initially reluctant and only 47% of children were

evacuated. When the expected bombings did not occur in 1939 around 1

million evacuees returned to the cities. However, in 1940 the

Luftwaffe began bombing and another evacuation took place. By the 7th

of September the Luftwaffe was bombing cities such as Liverpool and

Plymouth, Birmingham and Coventry. Parents were now desperate to get

there children out of these target zones and by December 1941 over

1,250,000, children had left the cities.

http://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online%20Museum/Museum%20Docs/airraidshelters.html

http://www.johndclare.net/EL6.htm

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Museum%20Docs/airraidshelters.html