Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain(TM)s major cities in the early years of the Second World War
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Introduction
GCSE History Coursework - Question 1 Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War? When Britain declared war on Germany in 1939 the British government urged families in cities that were likely to be bombed in air raids, to evacuate their children to the country. There was lots of reasons the British government decided to evacuate children during WW2 most of them I will highlight in this essay. The first reason the British evacuated children was because England had experienced air raids during world war one. Gotha bombers & Zeppelins, which were huge balloons that dropped bombs, reeked havoc on British towns. ...read more.
Middle
The city was bombed to the ground by German planes. Some people believe that the Luftwaffe bombed the city as an experiment to measure the damage to the city and the loss of civilian life. The Luftwaffe confirmed their findings by bombing Shanghai. These events highlighted to the British government the damage that large scale 'blanket bombing' could have on any major British city. Evacuation was also considered essential as the Germans were likely to target key Cities, major industrial areas, ports and shipbuilding cities. It was thought that the Germans would try to disrupt major industrial production of weapons and supplies, areas producing equipment which was considered at risk were densely populated, and any air raid would target high numbers of children and families, these areas were considered 'high risk' and the government considered evacuation the only safe option. ...read more.
Conclusion
Another major reason was the collapse of France, Germany was now occupying France, which meant that they were nearer to England and were able to attack more easily and frequently as they were in closer range. Again, the government felt that the Germans were much more inclined to carry out large scale bombings on the major industrial areas of Britain, resulting in the threat to children's' lives. All of the above reasons contributed to the decision to evacuate children from cities to rural areas, which were considered a safer option. I feel that the reason which contributed most to the final decision of child evacuation was the confirmation that the Germans would bomb innocent children as a result of huge scale city destruction caused by air raids, as verified by the bombings in Guernica. ...read more.
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