One of the reasons for evacuation during World War Two was the fear of a ‘knockout blow’ by German attack. Germany’s new ‘Blitzkrieg’ tactic was a swift, single hit, air attack which was meant to knockout the target with bombing and then groups of Panzers, the German tanks, would be ready to move in waiting on the border. This tactic was used on a small Spanish town called Guernica to test it and it scared the British public and government so it was used as propaganda to encourage safety by evacuating. The fear of bombing from World War One by the Zeppelins was also in the minds of the government. The Munich crisis of 1938 really did scare the people and government, so much so that it led to London building trenches/air raid shelters in Hyde Park and St James Park. Many people believed that war was inevitable due to the media- newspapers and films. The British showed the German film, “All quiet on the Western Front” as it made people believe that war would happen and it was also used as propaganda. Other things used as propaganda were the exaggeration of German rearmament, a statement from air staff after WW1, which said, “It is fair to assume that in densely populated areas, such as London there will be 50 casualties per ton of bombs dropped. Of these casualties, one third will be killed and two thirds wounded.” This idea came from a Zeppelin raid on London and the bombing of Guernica. Defence experts believed government should prepare for the possibility of 600 tons of bombs a day and a quarter of a million casualties in the first week. This meant that hospitals were put on a red alert, state of emergency. All these things were used to hopefully terrify people into leaving for safety. The devastation that would be caused if what was said was true would have been astronomical so it did work to persuade people to evacuate.
Another important reason for evacuation was the fear of gas and was also linked to bombing. The memories of the horrors of gas from World war One and stories from people who experienced it, of people missing eyes and limbs due to gas, really scared people. Also, Mussolini used gas in the 1930’s to devastate Abyssinia/Ethiopia. The media hyped up the fear of gas. A handbook was made which frightened people and because of Abyssinia and Hitler taking over, gas led the government to issue 38 million gas masks to people following Munich, which obviously petrified them and created panic across the land. The local authorities advised in 1937 that air raid precautions should be put into place and men too old to go to war became ARP volunteers and were given a wooden stick to use as a gun to pretend to shoot German bombers and frighten them away. Rumours of an imminent war were everywhere. All over the media people were encouraged to prepare for war and to evacuate as a result of apprehension and dread.
Due to fear of bombing/blitzkrieg, gas, government propaganda and the heightened state of fear, John Anderson (the inventor of the ‘Anderson shelter’) made an evacuation plan in 1938. The plan was called ‘Operation Pied Piper’ and was to use the railway system to transport children under 16, teachers, old people, pregnant women and the disabled to a neutral area in the countryside which wasn’t targeted, away from the evacuation zones, the big cities. The people who stayed behind were the ones that could work so that there was a continued industry. At the start of World War Two in September 1939 evacuation was put into action. 3 million people moved but only half of that used government transport, the rest moved independently. They all went to safety in the countryside, away from the threat of bombing and gas, etc. However this never happened. The first evacuation was a failure because, by January 1940, the majority had gone home. This was known as the ‘Phoney war’ as there were no bombings and nothing happened from September to April . People went home as they thought that there was no hazard of being bombed and so obviously wanted to return.
By May 1940 the situation had changed again. There was a second evacuation and more propaganda took place on account of two battles, the battle of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain. At the Battle of Dunkirk the strength of Hitler’s air attack was proved. This caused panic and led to a second evacuation. The Battle of Britain was an aerial battle between the British RAF and the German Luftwaffe. The battle took place in the skies over Britain. The only way that Germany could make Britain surrender was to bomb civilians to destroy morale so they backed down and changed their tactics to bombing cities. This period, where Britain was constantly bombed by the Luftwaffe, was called the Blitz. As a consequence of this, and also because of the fall of France owing to the Schlieffen plan, the government once again tried to encourage people to depart the big cities with a second evacuation attempt and more propaganda. They tried to tempt them to go to new places, for instance America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where they would stay permanently. This ended when German submarines attacked a ship, killing numerous children whilst it was transporting evacuees to safety.
In conclusion I believe that there were many reasons why the British government decided to evacuate from British cities in the early years of the Second World War. These reasons were the fear of bombing by the German Luftwaffe, the fear of a gas attack and the Battles of Dunkirk and Britain. The fear of bombing was an apprehension that Germany would use a Knockout blow and annihilate Britain in one go. The fear of gas came from the horrors of the First World War and what it would be like in Britain. The Battle of Britain and the Battle of Dunkirk also sparked panic and alarm in Britain as Germany was near and there would be bombing, unlike during the phoney war. All these reasons combined, in my opinion, led the government to evacuate from British cities and I believe that there was not just one incentive for the government to promote propaganda to encourage people to leave, all the reasons collectively made them have to do it.
