Evacuation in the Second world War.

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Fiona Lomas        “Evacuation was a great success”

        How far do you agree with this interpretation

Britain started preparing for the Second World War very early by building air – raid shelters and beginning to think about evacuation.  The country was afraid of loosing more people than to loose in War.  The aim was to save as many lives as possible especially, the children in order to save a generation.  This provided more space too.  The government took precautions as they were expecting 10, 000 casualties per air – raid.  Evacuation was not compulsory and many families didn’t want to part with their children, whilst others felt more relaxed knowing their children were safe.  

The government produced propaganda posters to persuade parents to evacuate their children.  The nation already witnessed what the German bombers did to Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.  Everyone was given a gas mask to carry around with them at all times – including school.  In 1937 air – raid precautions were introduced involving blackouts and evacuation of the vulnerable.  Its aim was to save as many lives as possible.  Britain were criticised for not doing enough during the First World War and had to act in WW2.  

Evacuation occurred in the bigger cities such as Liverpool and London.  This was mainly down to the huge ports in Liverpool used for exchanging goods, and the fact that London is the capital city.  There were doubts whether the money was being spent in the best way, the fact that the casualties per air – raid was far fewer than first thought and the psychological problems stemming from being separated from the families.

There are a lot of disadvantages for example, in most of the posters published for evacuation, all of the children are smiling and look happy about leaving home for years.  However it is debated that the children are only posing for the cameras, which inflicts more propaganda.  Many people who had been evacuated and lived throughout the War have memories about their own experiences.  This is a good thing because now we have first hand knowledge on the events of the War.  On the other, this is only one sided and a lot of these memories could have been affected which has resulted in less accurate accounts on evacuation.

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On a positive point of view evacuation did make a lot of people’s lives better and experienced what it was like to live in a different t part of the country and do things they wouldn’t have done if they stayed in their home.  Evacuation did prevent a lot of children and vulnerable people loosing their lives.  

The period of time when evacuation happened but bombs failed to cause much of an impact was called the “Phoney War”.  Consequently many mothers felt it was pointless being separated from their children when they were not in a great ...

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