There were many reasons for evacuation. One of the most important was that Britain already knew that Hitler was a fearsome commander who wouldn’t hold back in overthrowing the country. Britain knew this because of Hitler’s actions in the Spanish Civil War, and that he would probably use similar techniques against Britain.
Another reason for evacuating children was to keep up British Morale. This meant that if the children were happy, and the parents knew they were safe, the country might have been stronger in the face of battle.
Because Britain had already suffered air attacks from zeppelins in the First World War in Scarborough, and other coastal cities and towns, air attacks were expected again this time.
During the first few months of the war, very little happened on the Home Front. The expected immediate widespread bombing of British cities and industrial areas never took place. This period became known as the 'phoney war'. It was during this time that many of the evacuees started to drift back home, only to be evacuated once against a few months later.
By May 1940 however, the international crisis had worsened. Germany had swept through the Lower Countries, into France and had surrounded the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. It was at this time that those evacuees, sent to East Kent from London, were immediately removed to safer parts of Britain.
It was during the height of 'Operation Dynamo', the rescue operation that saved 338,000 British and Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, that the children of Kent had just a few days in which to prepare for evacuation.
On Sunday, 2nd June 1940, most of Kent schoolchildren were evacuated to the valleys of South Wales and to the rural areas of Staffordshire. It should be noted that the Government Evacuation Scheme was voluntary, and that parents were not compelled to send their children away. Local authorities in reception areas however, had compulsory powers to allocate evacuees to billets.
Because Britain didn’t know that the first year or so of the Second World War was going to be “phoney”, Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) was hugely overestimated. Britain wasn’t expecting quick attacks using bombers (Luftwaffe) and paratroopers. Blitzkrieg was very significant to Germany’s early triumph because it made them get the head start against Britain by having lots of quick and easy successes, such as capturing southern cities and towns.
During this time, British morale would probably be deteriorating, because they might of thought that their children were in danger, but it was Churchill who kept morale up by stating that the evacuation of Dunkirk was a success and by sporting “ bulldog spirit”.
