Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britains major cities in the early years of the Second World War.

The fear of many civilian deaths was all linked to the development in technology e.g. heavy bombers and fighter planes had been developed to fly and hit targets over Europe. Motorised vehicles had been developed and were one of the main thrusts of Hitler’s Blitzkrieg (lightening war); the Blitzkrieg was all about power, speed and surprise. New equipment and more effective weapons made a big difference to how people reacted to war, they obviously had developed more dangerous weapons and the more effective the weapon the more deaths.

This lead to total war. Everyone in the country in one way or another was helping to contribute to the war effort, no matter how old or young they were. This links in with the rationing and women at work. The government thought that it would help the countries rationing policy if children were evacuated. They said that they could grown their own food in the countryside and there shouldn’t be any worry about them going hungry due to lack of food. With the children in countryside growing their own food this leaves the towns with more food. The governments wouldn’t be under so much stress as they wouldn’t have to worry about feeding all the people in the country as this was extra pressure on them. Evacuating the children would then free the women of the cities allowing them to take over the roles of the men, producing artillery. This was vital, as without the women working in the factories, Britain would simply not have been able to fight. The women were able to work because there was no need for them to stay at home and look after the children. They promoted posters to encourage the women to do this telling them that it was the right thing to do and that they should serve for their country either in the land army, grown you own campaigns and services.

The last reason for evacuation was control. The government controlled everything, they controlled when the evacuation should take place how and where to, they issued a leaflet titled evacuation-why and how? This was all part of propaganda. The government also evacuated children from the towns to the countryside so they would seem caring to the civilians, and gain their trust to keep the war effort going. They said that if they evacuated children from Britain overseas to different countries that there would be fewer mouths to feed in Britain.

To conclude I think the British government decided to evacuate because they predicted that this war might involve more fighting on the home front. Modern technology would be easier to bring the war over to Britain and more civilians would be injured. As this was a risk, by evacuating children to the countryside less were likely to be bombed they would reduce the death rate. They chose children for evacuation because the parents involved in the war effort would be able to concentrate and wouldn’t have to worry about the safety of their child. Also children are the next generation and if they were killed there would be no one to pick up the pieces after the war and in years to come. Also a final reason was that, in my opinion, the government was trying to sweeten the British people because they were partly responsible for the war. Hitler was able to get whatever he wanted because they had used policy of appeasement. The failure of the policy meant that it was foreseeable that a war was imminent against Germany and it placed the population of Britain in danger. Evacuation was a way of trying to make up for previous policy failure.