The British still remembered the bombing of Guenica where the Germans had attacked on a busy market day killing many civilians. Footage of this was shown in cinemas and shocked many people. Although people were killed, it was not a reliable source to base statistics on as it just happened that everyone was out on this busy day. There was also the case of German ships shelling Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby in 1914 causing over 500 casualties. Another method that the Germans had developed was Zeppelin airships. The first attack on Britain was in January 1915 when two Zeppelins bombed Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, killing two people and damaging houses. The Germans continued to use Zeppelin airships to attack London in 1915 and 1916 but this eventually stopped due to British defences. All of these attacks on Britain helped build up fear among the people and caused a psychological impact that Britain was no longer safe as an island.
The attack during the Spanish Civil War was a showcase of Hitler’s new and improved weaponry but this feared the British because there was an uncertainty on how far Hitler’s technology had developed. Previously, the German’s had made 103 air raids during the First World War killing over 1,400 people and injuring 4,000. The estimates of bombing for the Second World War were hugely exaggerated as it was assumed that 100,000 tons of high explosives would be dropped on Britain in the first fourteen days. It was in actual fact that the Germans had dropped 64,393 tons over Britain over the whole course of the war. Although aircrafts had been used during the First World War, it was very new technology. But for the Second World War, the RAF was determined to keep its independence as the third part of the armed forces. So they also exaggerated the estimates of bombing to make themselves seem more needed. It was said that for every ton of bombs dropped on Britain, it was thought that there would be 50 casualties, of whom a third would be fatal.
The government predicted that the cities would be bombed first as these were industrial areas and the factories would be producing weapons and ammunitions. As the war began, the factories needed more workers and it was thought ideal that women should do this work as it meant the men could go join up for the army and the women would then be doing their part for the war effort. So by evacuating children, this meant that the women did not have to look after their families full time or be as worried about them living in a potentially dangerous area.
The devastation of war was likely to lower the morale of the public and that when the attacks did occur it was expected that the poor would panic so it was thought best to evacuate the poorer families to prevent any further panic within the public. Otherwise it was possible that the poor would disperse to the wealthier areas and begin looting off them. If the public morale was hugely impacted, the government was scared that major cities would be brought to a standstill and no progression would be made.
Therefore, because of these reasons the British Government decided to evacuate children from major cities. I think that the initial reasons out those explained above are that the government knew how war had impacted Britain previously, how devastating it was, how long to it for the country to rebuild itself not just physically but mentally and that the children were their future generation. They would be the ones who would be affected by the aftermath of the war and its consequences.