The Evacuation of British Children During World War Two

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The Evacuation of British Children During World War Two The evacuation of Britain's cities at the start of World War Two was the largest movement of people in Britain's history. In the first four days of September 1939, nearly 3,000,000 people were transported from towns and cities. The Government’s aim was to reduce the risk of injuries and death from the main target areas such as London, Manchester, Bristol, Portsmouth and many other cities. The danger came from German bomber attacks over Britain. The first wave of evacuation in Britain took place on September 1st 1939. Britain evacuated children from the major cities because of long term, short term and spark causes leading up to 1st September 1939. It was necessary to evacuate children as a priority because they were considered the country’s future, as were pregnant women. It was necessary to spread the population out towards the countryside so that the people living there could do their part in the war; by looking after evacuees. The fear of bombing in the large cities was very high, due to past events such as Guernica, where bombing took place in 1937 during the Spanish civil war. Many parents wanted their children to move to safe areas until the threat of bombing had subsided. Since the First World War when gas bombs were first introduced against the allies in 1916, the British Government felt vulnerable by air raid attacks because both sides were constantly producing new technology. The fear from World War 1 was a long term cause of Evacuation in Britain. It was during the First World War that aircrafts were first used. Planes such as the German Gotha IV and the British Vi... ... middle of paper ... ... the ‘Luftwaffe’ was ordered to bomb Britain’s vital cities, beginning with London. Hitler was trying to break British moral, and was responding to the British bomb attacks on Berlin. It was necessary that the Major cities were to be evacuated again, as this time the phoney war was over and there was a real threat of the Germans succeeding. The Blitz had begun. These are the main reasons why I believe Britain had to be evacuated twice throughout the early stages of the war. The first evacuation was certainly due to fear of invasion and other possibilities of attacks by the Nazi’s, and the second wave was due to actual attacks after the phoney war. Germany had had shown to be a major threat that kept Britain in constant fear. If children were killed as a result of war then there would be little future for any country.

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