The source, which is more useful as evidence about the start of the children’s evacuation journey, is Source C. A reason for this is because it describes emotions, as well as the journey to the station, and other events that occurred. Whereas Source B is a photograph, and so only captures a split second of time, and the emotion is not the true emotion, it is more a pose for the camera.
(2)
Source G is an extract from the World War Two based novel Carrie’s War, written by Nina Bowden in 1973.
In the extract when Carrie and her brother Nick is asked to change into their slippers by their host Miss Evans, Carries reply was “We haven’t any.” Miss Evans reaction to this was quite negative, as well as sarcastic, “Oh, I’m sorry, how silly of me, why should you have slippers?” The fact that Miss Evans turned bright red in her reaction to Carrie’s reply, shows that she is short tempered, and probably feel she could be better off without the hassle of caring for two evacuees. A reason for this could be that she is not married because she is known as Miss Evans and does not have any children, so therefore she is young and does not really want to have the experience of looking after children yet. Her house is incredibly neat and tidy, as in the extract it states ‘Not a speck of dust anywhere,’ which is further evidence to prove Miss Evans has no children.
The evacuees during the Second World War could not carry much when travelling from the town or city to the countryside. They could just about take essential clothing, toiletries, and if they were lucky a luxury item of theirs. Carrie and Nick’s pack were too full, so there had not been any room for their slippers. Miss Evans quite simply thought that Carrie and Nick were poor because they had no slippers.
Most evacuees during the Second World War were poor; meaning they lived in slums, had a bad diet, but most of all could not afford essential items. People of the countryside expected a lot from the evacuees, seeing that they had come from towns and cities. They expected the evacuees to be rich and to have the utmost mannerisms. The countryside people thought this because the towns and cities were full of large industries, so there was a high rate of employment, and so probably very good pay. The truth was that the majority of those who worked in the industries were labourers and as a result received poor pay. The outlook of countryside people on poor children was slightly negative, due to the fact that in the countryside there were hardly any poor people, because everyone worked for a living.
The Source G extract originally comes from the novel Carrie’s War, written by Nina Bowden in 1973. She was born in London on 19th January 1925; here she resided until the Second World War, where she settled in a mining valley in Wales as an evacuee.
I believe Source G to be a reliable source in giving evidence about evacuees because the author Nina Bowden had actually experienced the evacuation period herself, as a young teenager. She wrote Carrie’s War in first person narrative from Carrie’s point of view, so in relation to Nina Bowden it is very close to her own experiences. It is a good source in showing the attitudes of the country hosts towards the evacuees and it is also good in giving evidence of items evacuees could not take, in this case it is slippers.
(3)
Before the Second World War broke out the government were putting down plans to evacuate children, teachers and mothers to the countryside. This was because the British government had a feeling that German bombers would hugely target major cities.
The start of the evacuation period was towards the end of August 1939, where approximately two million children were moved out of areas considered to be dangerous. The bombs did not fall for another eleven months, this was known as the Phoney War, so many of the evacuees returned to their homes. The Blitz, which was a wave of attacks by German bombers, who dropped vast amount of bombs. This brought a second load of evacuations to the countryside, nearly as large as the first evacuation, during the autumn of 1940. The Germans in 1944 had created a flying bomb known as the Doodlebug, which would fly until it ran out of petrol, and then would explode. The Doodlebug though had a very large disadvantage because it flew at an incredibly slow speed and made aloud-audible sound, so it was easily shot down. The Germans, with the ideas of their Doodlebug, introduced a much faster and powerful version to their attack, called V2 Rockets. The impact of the Doodlebug and V2 Rockets led to a third evacuation of over one million evacuees.
The children, who were to be sent away to the countryside, would usually travel along with their school friends and teachers. This is evident in Source B and Source C. Source B is a primary source as it is a photograph taken in September 1939. In the photograph there are the teachers and children who are quite happily walking towards the train station, carrying their belongings. Source C is from an interview, which is the memories of a teacher, recorded in 1988. Therefore this source is a secondary source due to the fact that it was told many years after the event. Source C describes the emotions of the children, teachers and mothers. The emotions in this source are much to what is expected in Source B; Source C describes the children as ‘…too afraid to talk,’ whilst, in Source B the children look very contented. The form of transport is also evident to both these sources. It is clear in Source B that both teachers and children are making their way to a train station. In Source C it states in the teachers memories ‘When we got to the train station the train is ready.’ Most evacuees seemed to have used a train as the main form of transport to travel to the countryside. The reason for the use of trains was that it was the quickest and safest route of travelling to a specified destination with a large amount of passengers.
Source D is a photograph issued by the government during the war. The photograph is of evacuees sharing a bath at bath time. The photograph is centred on a bath, which has four young boys inside it. The boys seem to be contented, this is probably because they are evacuees and know that they are clear from any kind of danger, which is most likely to happen in the cities. Bath time during the period of World War Two was very open like the photograph, there used to be public baths on street corners. Bath time then was considered to be a leisure time, a time for people to meet and greet, and relax. That is what the boys in the photograph are doing, meeting and relaxing, as they are free from the worry of falling bombs.
Source H is an advertisement issued by the government in 1940; it is an appeal for people in Scotland to provide homes for the evacuees. It is a primary source as it was used during World War Two. The headline ‘Thank you, Foster – Parents …we want more like you!’ is written in the centre of the advert and is written in a very bold font. This is implying that the foster – parents are doing a great fob in caring for evacuees, but there is need for more foster – parents. The advertisement is very encouraging; giving valid reasons as to why caring for an evacuee is good for the carer, the evacuee and the actual parents. The advert is short but quickly gets to the point that homes are needed in Scotland for evacuees. People who saw this advert during the Second World War would have enrolled immediately with the local Authority. This is because the source persuades the brain to think, especially after reading ‘You may be saving a child’s life.’ Nobody wants to die, because the process of evacuation was set-up to save lives. The picture of two children a boy and a girl, draws attention to where they have come from, in this case a danger zone, to where they could be, a safe environment. The children are happy with large smiles on their faces, because they know they are safe from falling bombs. The final paragraph, at the bottom of the page, written in bold, is similar to a final goodbye as it is rounding up the main point of the advert, but it seems more desperate in the search for foster-parents.
“Evacuation was a great success.” I strongly agree to this interpretation, mainly for the amount of lives saved. It is simple enough, if evacuation was not planned and put into use by the government, the death toll in the major cities suffering from targeted bombs would have been so much higher. It is evident in Source D that the evacuees were happy to have vacated what is considered as a danger zone, and be safe and free in the countryside. Source H, which is the advert realises that evacuation is an act of good doing, but it is need for foster – parents to care for evacuees, which is the what the focus is on in the advert. Evacuation helped many to survive, like the teacher in Source C and tell the memories of the Second World War.
