The government was also worried about the effect of an imminent aerial attack. This was probably due to evidence it had seen recently in the Spanish Civil war, where Hitler helped the Nationalists by using his air force. Not only was this a way for him to show off and intimidate the British, he exploited the opportunity to allow his soldiers to gain experience in flying planes and aerial battle.
This was especially frightening for Britain, as historically it had had the strongest navy, and was the strongest power on earth. It had also been aided by the fact that it was an island – thus harder to invade. But the new technology of airplanes meant that Britain was left extremely vulnerable to attack from above.
Yet this was not the only reason the government decided to evacuate Britain’s children. It goes without saying that children were safer in non-industrial conurbations, and this was undoubtedly one of the reasons the government paid for them to be evacuated.
Another possible reason as to why this decision was made is that the prime minister at the time, Neville Chamberlain, wanted to keep intact his generation of youth, as he understood the enormous economic and social loss that would be implicated if Britain were to lose a majority of its children. Perhaps a parallel can be drawn here between this ideology and the mentality of the ‘Hitler Youth’, which is rather ironic when one considers these two men were enemies and had opposing political stances.
Chamberlain also probably felt a certain responsibility to protect his people, and he was worried about the fact that Hitler had gone against the warnings of a now crumbling League of Nations, and invaded Czechoslovakia and Austria. He might have felt that there was only so much appeasement that he could do before it was necessary to take action. Perhaps Hitler had threatened Chamberlain too much by trying to expand his empire too fast. But he must have planned that war would take place – as he tried to make his country completely self-sufficient, so as not to have to rely on imports and face the prospect of boycotts.
In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that many things influenced Chamberlain and his government to evacuate the children of Britain. For example the previous Spanish Civil War, Hitler’s expansion of the Lebensraum, the importance of women working in factories, as well as the safety and wellbeing of the children of Britain. But in my opinion, if evacuation had not taken place, there would have been no chance of Britain winning the war.
