Why the British Government Decided to Evacuate Children from Britain's Major Cities in the Early Years of the Second World War

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Why the British Government Decided to Evacuate Children from Britain's Major Cities in the Early Years of the Second World War

The British government decided to evacuate the children of Britain’s

major cities because the government were convinced that in the

situation of a second world war that Britain would suffer heavy

bombing from the air. The solution they drew up to protect the British

younger population was to simply move them from densely populated

areas such as London, Sheffield and Liverpool. The plans were drawn up

long before the outbreak of the world war and they were carried out on

September 1st, just two days before the outbreak of war. The plans

were generally carried out without a hitch; children were moved from

densely populated areas into the countryside where the possibility of

bombing would be much less. The areas were called ‘Reception zones’

these were areas like the North Yorkshire Moors, The Lake District and

other less populated areas. The government also had an idea that the

more densely populated areas would be attacked because of the

production of materials from the factories that were in and around the

more densely populated areas. These factories would produce materials

that would help the outcome of the war in Britain’s favour. Another

reason that the British government were convinced the Germans would

bomb British homeland was that the Germans had bombed Britain in the

First World War. Also, the German air force (Lufftwaffe) had taken a

role in the Spanish civil war, where they had carried out mass

bombings on the civilian population.

The organisation of this mass evacuation (which was codenamed

‘Operation Pied Piper’) was on a phenomenally large scale. But people

could see the reason ‘For’ Evacuation and ‘Against’. In the first few

weeks of the start of the war, nearly two million children were

evacuated. The government, which controlled all aspects of the media,

wanted to give the public the impression that evacuation was popular

among those affected and put out propaganda pictures and film to this

effect.

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