The government evacuated children from major cities in Britain to safer areas of the country in response to a new style of warfare that had emerged from World War One, due to the use of aircraft. Aircraft began to target industrial areas in an attempt to damage a country’s economy, and therefore damage their ability on the front line, and morale. However, accuracy was bad and so bombs often landed off target and injured civilians who worked or lived in the industrial areas. The Government decided that the children needed to be protected as they were the next generation and fewer child deaths meant higher morale for the British people. Bombs were less likely to fall on rural areas of Great Britain and so the government decided to evacuate people who could not help the war effort out to houses, and families, in the countryside. Evacuation was when children, expectant mothers, the frail elderly, the disabled, and the chronically sick were moved to safer areas of the country in anticipation of bombing but not all these people moved. The plan for the evacuation was drawn up by the Anderson Committee in the summer of 1938. An advice leaflet produced by the Lord Privy Seal’s Office in July 1939 advised everyone to move whose presence could not be of assistance. Although evacuation was voluntary, many leaflets, radio shows and other propaganda was produced by the government to try to persuade people to go. They put a lot of time, effort and money into the production of propaganda. The evacuation was nicknamed ‘Operation Pied Piper’ (with reference to the children’s story) and initially took place on the 1st September 1939, however The Anderson Committee overestimated the number of people who would leave, a million and a quarter people ... ... middle of paper ... ... the evacuation of children was that if there were fewer children in the hospitals, adults would be treated faster and could go back to helping with the war effort. The government didn’t want injured or sick children blocking up an already busy hospital. Some people question whether it was worth evacuating children, due to the overestimation of the number of deaths. The government thought 3/4 million people would be killed in the Second World War, however in reality only about 600,000 were, and only 65,000 died from the bombing of Great Britain. Some people question whether it was worth the suffering that some children had to go through during evacuation, however in my opinion, the plan clearly saved lives and so I believe it was worth it, despite the trauma endured by a number of evacuees. At the time the government’s actions were done with the best of intentions.
Hundreds of boats came together to help the city, helping in any way they could. The boat captains in the documentary explained that they never seen so many boats at one time in the same location. Each boat would take as many people that they could fit on their boat it was the largest sea evacuation in history. Five hundred thousand people were evacuated in 9 hours more that the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II where three hundred thousand people were saved over nine
[4] From the memoirs of J.B Gent a Child in the war who lived on
Ways the British Government Attempted to Hide the Effects of the Blitz from the People of Britain
The first world war saw a lot of refusal towards the war effort by men which made the government afraid due to the futile and indiscriminate slaughter of the British army at the battle of the Somme in 1916 where General Haig's tactics failed to show success which resulted in Britain losing a vast majority of soldiers by 1916. Therefore the government feared that they might lose World War one as well because there a lot of casualties which needed to be replaced and many men were becoming antisocial and refused to join the war, these people were known as conscientious objector or short for C.Os. Some C.Os did not want to fight in the war but were keen to do there bit in the war, so they were willing to help out in weapon factories and go to the trenches and became stretcher bearers theses types of C.Os were known as non commandant, however some C.Os were total refused to do any type of military work these were known as the absolutists. By 1916 volunteers to join the war started drying up,as their was many reasons why men refused, being that they pacifists who isolated themselves from a type of violences, political objector who went against the idea that Germany were their enemy, and religious objector who followed the words of the bible which says “thou shell not kill” so they were against the idea of shedding blood of their own kind. Consequently, Britain introduced conscription in 1916 where the law stated that you had to severe your country in the military for a certain time period this only went for unmarried mans. But in 1916 the military services act got introduced which widened conscription to married man as well. Conscription increased the power of the British army massively which was what the Government wanted as they neede...
...n Longmate, 158). This despair did not reach the Luftwaffe and Hitler because they would not have publicized such feelings in their attempt to keep up the British war spirit. One of the witnesses to the bombing of Coventry even realized the situation “deducing that ‘morale was obviously failing’” (Longmate, 38). Furthermore, the Royal Air Force report in Air Raid: The Bombing of Coventry, 1940 exposed that the working classes were believed to be revolt, another indication of poor morale.
The Government of the U.S. tried blaming the evacuations on the war saying they were protecting the Japanese by moving them. The government made statements during this time that contradicted each other. For example, Japanese-Americans were being called “enemy aliens” but then they were encouraged by the government to be loyal Americans and enlist in the armed forces, move voluntarily, put up no fight and not question the forced relocation efforts (Conn, 1990).
East Germany’s refugee problem had its roots in the end of World War II. The nationalization of industry and agriculture under the Soviet controlled government led to many shortages that are common in communist countries. Citizens were low on food, shoes, housing, and other consumer goods. As if things could not get worse, Moscow demanded reparations during the first decade after the war. They took many of East Germany’s resources. (Kenny) By 1961, some 2.5 million Germans had fled. This reduced the GDR’s population by around fifteen percent. (Taylor) The mass amount of people escaping caused problems for life in East Germany. Twenty percent of the doctors had left between 1954 and 1961. Engineers, nurses, teachers, and skilled workers were fleeing as well. (Kenny) Jens Schöne, a Berlin historian, said, “Normal people were fed up. They didn’t want to wait fifteen years for a car, they didn’t want to work in a factory; they wanted to be able to t...
Both sides of the war had suffered tremendous losses and the numbers would have continued to grow over the course of the war. By choosing to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, I believe the lives saved in the long run outweigh the initial number of lives lost. There is no way to put a price of one human life against another, but the total number of deaths prevented could have been multitudes compared to the hundred thousand killed in the atomic blasts. From the numbers alone, I support President Truman’s utilitarian
On February 14, 1942 Lt. General J. L. DeWitt, “commanding general of the Fourth Army and the Western Defense Command[i]” recommended to the War Department, the “evacuation[ii]” of Japanese living along the Pacific coast, deemed a Military Zone. About 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, many of those people American citizens, living on the West Coast and Southern Arizona were removed from their homes to locations of the government’s choosing. The very term “evacuation” is misleading to say the least because it suggests that the Japanese were being relocated to protect their safety. The excuses cited by the military were to establish “broad civil control, anti-sabotage, and counter-espionage measures.[iii]” The reasons given to justify “evacuation” suggested that the Japanese were a threat to the nation and not the nation a threat to the Japanese.
The Impact of Bombing During World War II “Of course, the air raids caused much suffering and hardship. In the
● To either bomb the area, or to set up a quarantine line – he wanted to avoid war.
All those soldiers went through so much, they were too far in the war to quit. In that way, a soldier would stay to carry on those who lost their lives in battle.
Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed in the war. Sometimes they are even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (British Job p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on a path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate and innocent children. Over the years, many militants and rebel groups have propped up across Africa. Because of the existence of these rebel groups, they trained children as their Jetton.
In September of 1939 German soldiers defeated Poland in only two weeks. Jews were ordered to register all family members and to move to major cities. More than 10,000 Jews from the country arrived in Krakow daily. They were moved from their homes to the "Ghetto", a walled sixteen square block area, which they were only allowed to leave to go to work.
Machel, Graca & Sebastian Salgado. The Impact of War on Children. London: C. Hurst, 2001.