At the start of the war in 1939 Operation Pied Piper came into effect where 1.5 million children were moved in four days. The government used evacuation for military reasons too because if the children were safe their mothers could work in the factories for longer and produce more munitions and equipment to help the war effort. The evacuations also stopped the parents worrying when air raid attacks where taking place this helped keep up morale.
In May 1940 Chamberlain, who was following a policy of appeasement and who started evacuation was forced to resign as prime minister and Churchill took over. Churchill thought that it was important to keep up morale so the most vulnerable were kept safe. Total Warfare meant no one was safe so every one that was considered vulnerable were evacuated such as the elderly, pregnant women, blind, disabled and children. Many children living in big cities and towns were moved temporarily from their homes to places considered safer, usually out in the countryside.
The children needed to be protected because they are the next generation that will grow up to develop and run the country it was vital to protect the future citizens of the nation. That’s why they were evacuated to safer places like the country side and over seas to places like Canada, Australia the United States and South Africa. In May 1940 the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) was created to organize the evacuation of children to other countries. After the sinking of the City of Benares on September 17 the entire plan of over seas evacuation was scrapped. Only 2,664 children were moved abroad. About 13,000 children had been privately evacuated overseas.
Britain knew the power of Hitler’s Luftwaffe blitzkrieg during the Spanish civil war where Hitler tested Germany’s airplanes and dive bomber accuracy which resulted in the devastation of Guernica. The Government realized that if nothing was done they would be a lot of casualties because technology in avionics was more advanced and more deadly than ever before. The British government expected 1.8 million dead within the first 60 days and up to 40,000 dead in each raid and Britain was not in a position to protect herself.
The British government made evacuation voluntary to try and stay onside with the people, if some people did not want to be evacuated then they were not forced as this would have caused people to lose faith and support in the government. The fact that the evacuation took place made the soldiers that were fathers more relaxed which caused a boost in morale.
The government succeeded in protecting most of the children and evacuation overall was a success. If evacuation was not introduced then they would have been a lot more deaths and morale would have been lowered which could have changed the outcome of the war. Evacuation played a crucial role in WW2 which helped defeat Germany. The British government evacuated children from major cities and ports during World War 2 for several reasons like Military reasons and political reasons.