The British Government evacuated children during World War Two because it would reduce the civilian death rate which would mean morale would stay high. For example, in autumn 1940, London got bombed for seventy five days out of seventy six and in 1936 there was a Spanish civil war and the major cities were the targets, so this encouraged the Government to keep the children out of the major cities so the same thing would not happen to the British. This was an important reason because Britain’s main industrial cities were Manchester, London, Liverpool and Coventry. So this meant that if the children weren’t in the cities then there would be a lower death rate.
Another reason why children were evacuated during the war was so that it would free up adults’ lives so they could concentrate on the war effort because the children would not be at home. For example, the men were conscripted if they were between the ages of eighteen to forty one years old and women worked in women’s land armies, factories or nursing work between the ages of nineteen to thirty years old. This helps to explain why the Government evacuated the children because the men and women would not have to look after their children so they could focus on helping for the war effort and also the men older than forty one would help in the Home Guard. Plus all war effort work was well paid.
Moreover, children got evacuated because they are the ‘future of the nation’ so if they were not evacuated then there would be no future nation. For example, people were needed to help with the reconstruction after the war to help bring the city back to the way it was before the war destroyed it and if there were no people then this could not be done. This was another important reason because some of the reconstruction jobs were politicians, doctors and teachers which helped keep the future nation educated and civil without everything dramatically changing in the public’s lives.
Additionally, the British Government evacuated children so that they did not have to witness the atrocities that were going to face them if they stayed at home. For example, the Blitz lasted for two months which could have put the children’s lives at great risk. This also explains why the Government evacuated the children because in the first night of the Blitz it killed four hundred and thirty six people and seriously injured over one thousand six hundred people. This meant that the Government did not want the children to be psychologically damaged if they saw what had happened to their homes and the industrial cities and this would not happen if they were not there.
Furthermore, children were evacuated so it would keep them safe during the war and they could still take on key jobs after the war. For example, reconstruction jobs were going to be needed after the war and they needed people to do them which they could not if everyone was killed. This reason links in with that the children are the ‘future of the nation,’ and that this is important to do with evacuation because workers were needed for reconstruction jobs and similar reasons that I have already mentioned which are to do with that children are the ‘future of the nation’ and one of these was that if everyone was killed then no one would be able to reconstruct the cities.
Finally, children got evacuated out of major cities because it was more than likely that there would be air attacks on the cities such as Coventry, London, Manchester and Liverpool, so if they stayed there, they could have been in danger of injury or could have been putting their lives under threat. For example, planes could now travel long distances and since the late 1930’s, you could gas people from the air. So this is another reason why the Government evacuated the children because they knew there had been major developments since World War One with the technology of the planes and that is what made the air attacks more likely to happen on the main cities. Also the fact that there was a Spanish civil war in 1936 and that the cities were the main targets then, made it more obvious to the Government that they could be in Britain too which links into reducing the death rate.
Overall the British Government decided to evacuate the children from Britain’s major cities in the early years of the Second World War because children needed to take up key jobs after the war which links to another reason which is that children are the ‘future of the nation.’ Other reasons are that it would reduce thdeath rate and would therefore mean that morale is kept high, it would protect the children from witnessing atrocities and there had been significant developments in technology to do with planes since the First World War so that made air attacks on cities more likely. The main reason was that it would free up adults’ time to concentrate on helping the war effort because that meant the men and women could help with the war effort without having to worrying about looking after their children because they were not living with them anymore and that the war effort would help all those that needed it.
