History Coursework - Evacuation

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History Assignment

Question A:

        “Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain’s major cities at the start of the Second World War”?

There are numerous reasons why the British Government decided to evacuate children from the major cities at the start of the Second World War. The Government had great concerns about the number of casualties in the very first air attack. They predicted there would be 58,000 deaths (the majority of these would be children) in the first air raid alone. This would have destroyed morale of the British people, which in turn would have put the Government under immense pressure to surrender early before any more casualties. The Government was anxious over the physical, psychological and emotional effects the bombings would have had on the British public. The air raids would have focused on densely populated areas such as big industrial cities, so to cause the most economical destruction and loss of life, which would affect our ability to win the war, due to loss of transport systems such as railways and bridges.

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There were many reasons why the British Government introduced evacuation in September 1939. The level of activity they showed reflected how concerned they were. For example they issued 38 million gas masks and introduced a public information leaflet on evacuation in July 1939 along with a range of other precautions. These include the Blackout System.  Everyone had to put up heavy curtains or shutters to stop the light escaping from their windows.  The streetlights were also dimmed.  The idea was to make it harder for the bombers on nighttime air raids to spot towns and cities.  The Government also ...

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