-There was a non-compulsory nature set about the whole operation of evacuation. In an advice leaflet produced by the Lord Privy Seal's Office in July 1939 it stated: “Of course it means heartache to be separated from your children, but you can be quite sure that they will be looked after. That will relieve you of one anxiety at any rate. You cannot wish, if it is possible to evacuate them, to let your children experience the dangers and fears of an air attack in crowed cities. ”
-The advice leaflet also noticed the fact that many people would be making private arrangements for this they said: “If you have made private arrangements for getting away your children to relatives or friends in the country, or intend to make them, you should remember that while the government evacuation scheme is in progress ordinary railway and road services will necessarily be drastically reduced and subject to alteration at short notice. Do not, therefore, in an emergency leave your private plans to be carried out at the last moment. It may then be too late. ”
-The plan to evacute children from major cities had been developed in the summer of 1938 by the Anderson Committee. The plan divided the country into zones, classified as either "evacuation" (at greatest risk of being bombed), "neutral"(at medium risk of being bombed) , or "reception"(slight risk of being bombed), with priority evacuees being moved from the major urban areas which were mainly “evacuation” areas, and billeted on the available private housing in more rural counties. In early 1939, the reception areas compiled lists of available housing. 4.8 million places were found for people was found, and the government also constructed camps for a few thousand additional spaces just in case demand was extremely high. In the early summer of 1939, the government began publicising its plan through the local authorities. They had horrendously overestimated demand; only half of all school-aged children were moved from the urban areas instead of the expected 80%. There was enormous regional variation; towns in Yorkshire moved less than 15% of their children, while over 60% of children were evacuated in Manchester and Liverpool .
-One of the main reasons for the evacuation was the bombing of the Spanish City of Guernica by Germans in the Spanish Civil War in 1917 where the Germans tried to stop the spread of communism. After this event, Europe, and in particular Britain, witnessed the devastating power that the Germans had, and the effect of which they could bomb cities and the extremely effective tactic devised by the Germans, Blitzkrieg (lightning war). This alarmed Britain, and they knew that if Germany wanted to, they could devastate British cities. After the event, Britain had started to plan the evacuation. Proof that this was in the fact that schools had evacuation drills. Evacuation was considered so important as the bombing of Guernica proved to the British Government the effect of the German tactic.
-Also, if bombing occurred in major cities, which killed many young children, there would be a risk of losing generations of families and British people. It risked wiping out many educated young people. However small this factor was, it was a factor, which lead to the most important factor, morale.
-Morale was arguably the most important factor, which made the British government decide to evacuate the children from the major cities across Britain. With the soldier’s children at risk from bombing, morale was low for the soldiers. This was boosted when the evacuation started taking place. If the soldier knew that their children were safe they could think about other things and concentrate on fighting this is also similar to the working women of Britain.
-Another reason was that children had little to no use in the war effort, although their mothers did. The mothers were part of the woman’s workforce, and could as a result contribute to the war effort. With the children taken away from them, the woman had more free time to do essential jobs such as work in industries for Britain, enabling woman to replace men in key jobs that men would have had before they went to war, thus minimising the effect of the loss of men as a result of the war effort. With men being replaced by women in the industries, there was no excuse for men to stay behind and work instead of fighting for their country at war. In the long term, evacuation was in place to ensure maximum contribution to the war effort from different groups of people within British society, reasoning why children were evacuated.
-In conclusion, Morale was the most important factor in the decision that the British government made to evacuate the children from Britain’s major cities to the rural areas. Morale is one of the most needed things in wars and so without it the British people would want to be out of the war if their children were dying. With parents knowing that their children were safe they could continue to work towards helping in the war be it by making ammunition or fighting in the front line. But if it was not for the working women who knew that their children were safer away from the major cities, Britain could not continue its war effort or at least sustain a high level of effort.
