This advance in technology by the German forces made it almost obligatory for the British government to evacuate.
The ‘blitzkrieg’ never actually was used on Britain, although the sincerity of the German lightening war was witnessed at it’s worst in Guernica, Spain during the Spanish civil war.
The strategy used in Guernica was that bombs were initially set to explode in the market place and as the locals fled they were gunned down by German fighter planes. This massacre lasted for three hours and left almost two thousand civilians dead or severely injured. This gave the British government the perfect reason to initialise evacuation in the United Kingdom and keep the nation’s children safe.
The Guernica bombings, along with being witnessed by British military, had also been recorded. This footage was then shown in cinemas to show the Britons what could happen if they did not follow the many instructions that were given out by the government during the period of World War Two. The film was also used as encouragement to all parents, trying to enforce parents to agree with evacuation of their children.
When the allies signed the treaty of Versailles in June 1919, it became one of Hitler's aims to discard it as this deprived Germany on much of it’s previously owned land.
Adolf Hitler vowed to his subjects that he would gain lebensraum and self-sufficiency, Hitler did so by invading many European countries including Czechoslovakia and Poland.
This became a threat to Britain, because they were the only country not to succumb to the German blitzkrieg. Britain would then be alone in the event of an attack and along with that the German luftwaffe were only 22 miles away from Britain giving Britain a clear disadvantage.
Germany began to re-arm in 1935, after agreeing to do so in an agreement with Britain. To support this, in the same year Germany introduced conscription.
Also, the luftwaffe were re-arming very quickly; a lot quicker than the British air force. This was another reason for the introduction of evacuation. If the luftwaffe became more powerful than the RAF, which was looking possible, this would give Britain the inability to sufficiently defend itself in the event of an air attack.
The major target for the luftwaffe was the major cities of Britain. This was because of the dense population, if the main cities were attacked then the whole country would be made aware of the severity of Britain's troubles, this would lower morale. Also, munitions factories were set in the city, if these were targeted and struck then this would reduce the resources available to Britain.
Another main reason for the government to introduce evacuation into Britain was that it would free the parents of children to play their part in the effort against Germany whilst not having their children to distract them.
Britain also felt it was necessary for the positive economic effects it would have. If there were less children in the major targeted cities this would mean that there were less people to gain injuries, resulting in less money being put into the medical industry and more money would be put into funding the war effort.
Also, the children being away from the major cities would leave more food for people in the cities. This would keep everybody from going hungry. If the workers in the city remained well fed, then this would increase morale and would provide sufficient energy to improve and maintain the quality, quantity and the production speed of their work.
Morale was an important issue with the British government, if the public carried a low morale then the war would be a perfect opportunity for them to turn against the standing government. The government’s care for a high morale amongst it’s civilians was also an influence on the idea of evacuation. If an abundance of children were seen to be killed in the war then this would see an extreme depression in the morale of parents. This could also lead to affect the way in which soldiers would fight in the war.
Evacuation didn’t only nurse children from the extreme happenings in the cities, it also widened their views and culture. Many children that had came from the cities had never seen a bathroom that wasn’t outside or even such common farm animals as a horse or a cow. It also kept evacuees well nourished and healthy both physically and nutritionally because a lot of the foods in the countryside consisted of home grown vegetables and meat and dairy products which had been derived from the animals.
The families in the countryside who were taking in the evacuees also benefited from the arrival of their lodgers. They also found out new things about the city and how contrasting their lives really were.
Other precautions were taken along with the evacuation of children to aid British chance of success in World War Two. These precautions were more personal; they involved the civilians doing things for themselves to remain safe. Although instructions were issued, these methods of protection differed from that of evacuation where the majority of the work was done by other people. For example, ‘blackout.’ In this people were to blacken out all of their windows so that Germans would not be able to see their targets in the dark. For this, anything could be used, as long as the light from inside the house did not leave. It was left up to the occupants of the house to deal with this however they wanted.
Along with the blackout, more direct precautions were introduced to deal with the German threat first hand. The gas mask was issued to everybody, it even became an offence not to carry one, though gas was never used. Bomb shelters were another form of primary protection; there was two types of shelter, the Anderson shelter and the Morrison shelter. People in the city were advised to use suitable buildings that were already there, to avoid having to overspend war funds on bomb shelters.
Blackouts were used to keep light invisible from any German attack, this was also done by removing streetlamps and headlights from motor vehicles. Sign posts were removed also, to confuse any Germans lost or strategically placed behind our lines.
The British government introduced evacuation into it’s major cities as one of many precautionary methods that was used to protect the millions of innocent civilians and to take as many steps necessary to prevent the deadly aerial assaults that Germany had the potential to unleash, which would destroy Britain and a majority of it’s population.