The government feared in particular, the German ‘Blitzkrieg’ or lightening war. German planes were targeting anything that could help the British economy and their soldiers throughout the war. Britain was worried that not only would the factories, harbours and communications systems be under threat but ordinary civilians would be at risk because of this policy. The government knew that Germany would target major industrial cities in an attempt to cripple Britain’s war effort, so they decided to move specific groups of people to the countryside where they were more likely to be safe.
As the possibility of war became clearer, Britain began to take precautions to protect the people and important buildings. One measure was the introduction of blackouts. After a certain time, all people in major cities were told to prevent any light from being visible. Windows were blacked out, streetlamps turned off, and car headlights had to be covered. The ARP (Air Raid Precautions) unit patrolled the streets at this time to ensure the laws were being enforced. The German pilots flew up the Thames until they could see lights to show a city. If there were no lights, they couldn’t find the cities at night. They also issued gas masks (which didn’t work) and Anderson and Morrison shelters in an attempt to protect people if a bomb did hit. Although neither of the shelters would have survived a direct hit, they helped to keep up morale.
Children were the next generation. They were crucial in preserving Britain’s future. If the government evacuated children, then when the children grew up, they could help the country, especially as no one knew how long the war would last. Many teenage boys were conscripted as soon as they old enough.
Also, Children were the least productive members of society. They couldn’t work and still had to be looked after. Therefore they were a liability; if children were evacuated to the countryside, they could farm – producing enough food to feed them and excess to help feed the rest of the country. This could result in fewer adults working as farm labourers, and more could be used in other crucial or reserved occupations. It also resulted in parents knowing their children were safe. In theory, if parents knew their kids were safe, morale would be kept up. They wouldn’t have to worry about if their children would be alright without them so this in turn meant they would work better and be more productive. This would have been crucial for getting women, who were usually housewives, to work doing things like farm labour or canaries working in ammunitions factories as canaries.
Furthermore, by reducing the amount of people in the cities, the civil defence forces had less people to worry about. They didn’t have to keep an eye out for children playing in bombed out houses as some often did. People were also concerned about the welfare of children due to stories of Nazi atrocities. Many magazines and newspapers had published stories hailing the Germans as inhuman and committing atrocities towards women and children in particular. Although many were fabricated stories, it helped fuel hatred for German soldiers. The public didn’t want their children at risk so although evacuation was optional, millions of people felt inclined to send away loved ones.
The British government needed to prove to people they did know what was best for the country after under-reacting for so long. After the failure of Appeasement, they had to convince people to put their faith back in the government. To do this, they began a large scale campaign for evacuation, ‘Operation Pied Piper’, to show how serious they were.
‘Operation Pied Piper’ was the large and complex process of moving as many children as possible into the countryside. Not only did they have to organise train rides to transport all involved, the government had to arrange for each person to be received at the other end of the journey. They needed escorts and host families, as well as ways of getting them to their hosts. It wasn’t uncommon to find a child left waiting in a reception centre with a name tag, all alone. The sheer scale of the process meant that people were sometimes forgotten. The government had to be completely committed to the process in order to pull it off. Although evacuation was optional, the government employed a vast range of propaganda to appeal to all ages encouraging evacuation. These campaigns were incredibly successful, resulting in the evacuation of such a high number of people in that first weekend. Evacuation was also employed as a government policy abroad as other countries grew more and more concerned for the welfare of children in their industrial areas.
Evacuation in Britain came in three big waves. During the phoney war (a period when no bombs were dropped in early 1940), people began to feel a false sense of confidence that they would not be bombed. Throughout this time, 1.2million evacuated children returned to their homes in the cities. Britain had not been attacked for 6 months. In May 1940, an attack on France caused the country to restart the evacuation campaign which was responded by an increase in evacuation. By this time, people had begun to consider overseas evacuation. The government sent some boats to British colonies such as: Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The general consensus was that children would be safer there than in the firing line. If children could be safely transported to British colonies, then it appeared to be the best possible solution until the sinking of the ‘City OF Banares’ ship as part of the German U – Boat campaign. This led to the government deeming overseas evacuation unsafe and putting it to a halt; although some private evacuations still carried on if people had the money. Also, ships were needed for warfare. Britain could not afford to use ships for evacuation and provide escort boats to protect those ships. The government decided that the ships would be of better use elsewhere and by default, that children would be safest moved to the countryside, where they were less likely to be attacked than in the cities or even apparently at sea.
The German navy was sinking any ships going to and from Britain in an attempt to cut supplies and ultimately, starve Britain out of the war. Although often gruesome (as in the above incident), it was successful. At one period, Britain came within its last stores of food, only enough to last a couple of weeks. This was a big motivation for wanting overseas evacuation. If children were sent abroad, then there were less people that needed to be fed in Britain. Also, Britain couldn’t afford to take ships away from the war to protect ships carrying food (the convoy system).
In 1944-45, a final wave of evacuation came about. People became fearful after attacks by the German V-1 and V-2 rockets. People were persuaded by the force of the attacks, that evacuation was necessary to protect their children. Again, the government used propaganda to encourage people that evacuation was the wisest course of action.
Between September 1939 and 1945, the government felt the need to ensure the safety of children as the future of the country. By evacuating children, there were more people available to help with the war effort. Evacuation solved a stream of problems for the British government at the start of the war. It meant that they could increase food production as well as making more people available for work in crucial fields. Evacuation helped to keep up morale by ensuring that at least children were safe and also succeeded in reducing the amount of people that needed feeding (by transporting some overseas). Without evacuation in the Second World War, the number of casualties and deaths could have risen phenomenally and many could have just starved to death. The government successfully protected most of Britain’s younger generation, and helped to gain a victory in the war.
