Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from major cities in the Second World War

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Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from major cities in the Second World War?

During the first few months of the war evacuation was voluntary and introduced to try and save the lives of children and the vulnerable. The British government evacuated children from the major cities and ports because they were potential air raid targets for German bombers. Almost 3.5 million people were moved to try and keep casualties down by the end of the war most of them were children.  

The British government evacuated children from major cities because they were at risk of bombing raids. The government expected 600,000 deaths due to bombing raids in just the first few days of the war. They evacuated children to the country where there is less chance of bombing so that they would be safe. After the experience of WW1 an Air Raid Precautions committee was introduced in 1924. This introduced things like Anderson shelters, gas masks and black outs  

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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 ...

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