Why did the British Government Decide To Evacuate Children from Britain's Major Cities at the start of WW2?

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Jaimes Charles

History coursework - Evacuation

Why did the British Government Decide To Evacuate Children from Britain's Major Cities at the start of WW2?

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n August 1938 Adolf Hitler began to make speeches to suggest he was going to send the German army into Czechoslovakia. The British government began to expect a war with the Nazis and the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain ordered that A.R.P workers were mobilised. Cellars and basements were turned into air raid shelters and underground shelters were dug in public parks for communal use.

On 3 September 1939, the people of Britain heard over the radio that war had been declared. Outline plans had been drawn up as early as 1935 after the Munich conference however they became much more detailed. The British Government had decided to organise an evacuation scheme in which Sir John Anderson was put in charge. He decided to split the country into three groups. The first was people who lived in Urban districts. These included large cities like London and ports like Liverpool.

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The Germans bombed Liverpool because it was the country's main port. The country's economy had changed by then. The country could no longer grow enough food to support its own people. Food had to be imported from places like America and therefore, like the First World War, they wanted to bomb the country into submission.

People would have to be evacuated from these areas because they were expected to be very heavily bombed. Also the Air ministry predicted that in London in the first 60 days of the war there would be 60,000 dead. These figures probably helped to ...

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