Another reason why the British government decided to evacuate children from Britain’s major cities in the early years of the Second World War is, because people out on the lines were to believe that their children and families back home had been evacuated and were all fine and safe, this was to boost the morale for the British troops. This would encourage them to work harder, to ensure Britain would be a safe place for their children to grow up. Evacuation also gave the woman a role.
As Evacuation gave freedom to the women, the Government took advantage of this and started making propaganda posters, encouraging the woman to work in the cities to take over the rolls of the men. This campaign was successful as the working rate of woman improved significantly. Woman did work such as producing artillery to send to the lines. This was vital, because without the women working in the factories, Britain would simply not have been able to fight. The government also wanted to ensure a good future for Britain as a country, as they knew that many of the men were likely to be killed from fighting, they needed to keep someone in the country for after the war to run the shops, factories and other businesses.
As Britain decided to evacuate children from the major cities in the early years of the Second World War, there were always children who weren’t evacuated for several reasons; however the life the faced in the citied was not easy.
Life in the cities was terrible. Children that went to school were trained for the war. The children had to paint the shelters to make it seem colorful and fun. Children also had their gas mask always with them. The schools didn’t have many facilities for PE and most of the children played in dangerous places after school, such as bombed houses. Overall the life in the cities was very dangerous place, but however life for the evacuees was very different.
Life for the evacuees was very different. They learned new stuff such as working in farm. So says Shropshire Archives ‘Life on the farm was so different from city life, with the strange smells and calls of animal’. For children like Shropshire Archive, life was not bad. In fact it was educational for these children as they learned basic knowledge, such as where milk and apple came from. These children also had to work in farms. Despite this success from the government, there were always other peoples who didn’t have a good foster parent. Some of them even claimed that there foster parent used to beat them. Especially these children returned to the major cities of Britain just before the Blitz started.
In the summer of 1940, Hitler decided to invade Britain. His plan was to take control of the English Channel by destroying the Royal Air force and then to send German troops into Britain to take control.
In July 1940, Hitler put his plan into operation. The German airforce (Luftwaffe) began making daily bombing raids on British ships, ports, radar stations, airfields and aircraft factories. This became known as the Battle of Britain. The Royal Air force took to the skies and there were many battles between British and German planes over the Channel and South Coast. Although British losses were high, German losses were higher and at the beginning of September Hitler decided to try a new tactic to conquer Britain. Hitler believed that by targeting civilians he could force the British to surrender and on 7th September 1940 began his daily bombing campaign. London was the main target but other major cities were also bombed. Casualties were high. On the first day of bombing 430 people were killed and 1,600 badly injured. Within a few weeks the daily bombing raids had become nightly raids. Hitler decided to make the bombing raids at night to increase the 'fear factor' and also to make people weaker by not allowing them to sleep properly. People in London slept in underground stations for protection. There were public shelters in most towns, but many people built Anderson shelters in their gardens so that they had protection if they were unable to get to the public shelter. Anderson shelters were made out of corrugated iron and were very strong. A hole was dug in the garden, then the shelter was placed in the hole and it was covered with earth. An air-raid siren warned people when a raid was about to begin.
Overall evacuation was a good idea as it tried to protect the most valuable thing, which was the future generation and it also managed to teach city children the life and responsibilities of urban families. However it wasn’t a great success.