"Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War?"
History Coursework Task One "Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War?" During the First World War, the home front in England did not experience the terrible warfare that was happening in France. The only experience the civilians had was the starvation due to the food shortages they were facing. There were no bombs dropped on the main cities, particularly because the air technology had not reached an advanced enough stage. On 1st September 1939, war was declared between Britain and Germany, for a second time in history. However, this war was to be a lot more dangerous, and the deaths were not limited to the battlefield. Civilians would be at much greater risk this time; technology had advanced a lot over the 20 years since the last war. Now there were fighter planes and bombs capable of causing devastation at great distances. These were not very accurate bombs, but they were very powerful. The Prime Minister of England, Neville Chamberlain was very worried about the fact that there were more deadly weapons available now, which could create a disaster in Britain, by hitting the defenseless civilians. He had already seen the results of war between Spain and the Far East in recent years. In this war there had been terrible mass bombing of main towns and cities. This frightened
Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War?
Hannah Mahdavi 11B Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War? September 1939-April 1940 was known as the 'phoney war'. Although war had been declared, no precautions seemed necessary yet, no bombings had taken place so evacuation and the wearing of gas masks seemed pointless to many people however the government still carried it out due to the threat that Germany would drop bombs at any time. The evacuation of Britain's cities at the start of World War Two was the biggest and most concentrated mass movement of people in Britain's history. Approximately 3,000,000 people, most being school children, were labelled like pieces of luggage and transported from towns and cities to places of safety in the countryside. When war finally did come the deaths and casualties would be estimated at 4,000,000 in London alone, because of this they though evacuation would be for the best. They thought the children were in a 'danger-zone' where bombs could drop at any minute, they were in most danger as the thought of mass death and injury to children was horrific and the situation would frighten them the most anyway. They were the future of the nation, the Government had to protect them as best they could. The Government handed out propaganda about the situation, trying to persuade people to give homes
Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War?
History Coursework Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War? Even before the war broke out, it was positive that the prime target for the Germans would be the city of London, because of the amount of people and how urbanized it was. In 1939, Germany declared war on Poland, and Britain and France declared war on Germany. The British government had a safe idea for children living in Large, heavily industrial and built-up cities. This was to evacuate them. Cities like London and Birmingham were the main targets for the German Bombers, and because they were very built up in some parts with tall buildings, they would be very easily seen and were very easy targets, for the Germans. If the children stayed in these developed cities, they would be under a great threat. This would have scared children living in London for example, where a great deal of the bombing occurred. The earlier that the government reacted to move the children the better for them, and there would have been more chance that they would have been safer. 830,000 children were evacuated from these urban cities in the first three days, from September 1st to September 3rd. Another reason for the Government to fear the German bombing tactics was the Blitzkrieg. The British had heard of this happening before in the Spanish Civil
Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the war?
Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the war? The evacuation of children occurred in World War Two. This is where the children were moved from the cities to the country. In this essay I am going to show how the evacuation occurred and some of the effects it caused and the advantages and disadvantages associated with the whole scheme. In the build-up to WW2 the powers and governments were very scared of bombing. England was no exception. As soon as WW2 began Britain began to evacuate the big towns and cities. Cities like London, Birmingham and Southampton along with other cities were all evacuated due to the dangers of bombing. In London alone the number of deaths were expected to reach up to 4 million. People were scared of bombing due to the Spanish Civil war in Guernica where the death rates were very high. As soon as war broke out many children along with teachers, siblings and or their mothers were evacuated to more sparsely populated areas like Yorkshire and Sussex. The government had to organise two waves of evacuation due to the Phoney War and after they got back many were reluctant to go back to the country again. They came back because in the Phoney War (pre-blitz) London was not bombed until the blitz started in 1940. The Phoney War saw many children return to there parents supposedly
Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the war?
Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the war? During the war over 3,000,000 children were evacuated into the British countryside and sent abroad to escape the bombing of Britain. Children were evacuated from most of the major cities including London, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle and were sent to live with foster parents in the country who would sometimes treat them well or sometimes treat them badly. If the children were very young then their mothers were evacuated with them but most of the children were evacuated with their schools and teachers, also pregnant women, and blind and disabled people moved to the country. There were three main times in the war when the children were evacuated. First was when the war began, second was after the phoney war when the battle of Britain began and third was in 1944 when the Germans bombed Britain using V2 rockets. The first time children were evacuated was on 1st September 1939, two days before the Second World War started. The government began plans for evacuation in the 1930's because they believed that as soon as the war started the cities and ports would immediately be bombed as this had happened during the recent wars in Spain and the Far East. After the Luffwaffe attacks on Barcelona in March 1938 the government feared that the amount of
Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities at the start of the Second World War?
Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities at the start of the Second World War? There are many reasons for the British government to evacuate children during world war two. Some of the reasons to why children were evacuated where that mothers were free to work in the munitions factories without the worry of their children, Two. There would be fewer casualties when bombs were dropped on the cities, Three. They were away from key industrial cities, which were a danger due to the germen bombings, Four. The fathers could concentrate on fighting knowing that their children were safe from the bombings, Five. If the war went on for longer than they expected then they would have a future generation, which are able to fight, and finally morale. If the children were evacuated to the countryside the mothers were free from worry. They now could get on with their work, i.e. in the munitions factories. With the worry off their shoulders they would be able to concentrate better and get more work done. The more work they did the more it benefited the army. Also if the children were evacuated the fathers were free to fight with out worrying. Just like the mothers they would be able to concentrate more, therefore fighting better. A lot of the civilians of Britain were still living in the fear of the First World War. They now knew that with
why did the british government decide to evacuate......children from Britain's Major cities at the start of the Second World War?
Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain's Major cities at the start of the Second World War? In this essay I will be studying why the British government decided to evacuate the children out of Britain's major towns and cities. In 1932 there was a Spanish civil war, this acted as a test for the German Luftwaffe, the German air force (Luftwaffe) got involved and showed the Spanish what they could do and by this I mean they bombed Guernica. This acted as a warning to the British government. After the government had seen what the Luftwaffe could do they decided in august 1939 to evacuate children to the countryside. In august 1939 the first evacuation was announced. Many parent where reluctant to let their children go but they accepted that they would be safer. In the first three days of September an estimated three thousand children were evacuated on trains to the countryside. The government decided to divide the country into three separate areas; evacuation (people in urban areas where heavy bombing could be expected), neutral (areas where they would neither send nor accept evacuees) and lastly reception (this was rural areas where evacuees would be sent to). But by 1940 an estimated three million evacuee had returned home, the reason that is suggested for this is that of the lack of bombing. Other reasons that were suggested were
Why do sources A-F differ in their attitudes to the evacuation of children?
Why do sources A-F differ in their attitudes to the evacuation of children? Explain answer using all the sources, the interpretation and knowledge from your studies. All the sources given differ in their attitude towards the evacuation of children. Source A shows children walking, quite carefree down a street, about to be evacuated. The children are not walking with their parents, but some of the children are on their own, probably because they have already been split up from their parents, and already know where they are going to be staying. Some children in the picture are with an adult that could be a parent or a minder. The children in the photo probably don't know exactly why they are being evacuated, and that is why they don't look too upset. It might have been the first time that the children had been away from their parents, so they would have been quite anxious or nervous, but wouldn't have shown it in the photo. This is a primary source, and was taken as the children were leaving, so it shows us almost exactly what it would have been like for the children. Source B is a teacher who was evacuated from her school, and has gives us a better idea of what the atmosphere would have been like when the children had to leave their parents. The pupils were very scared to leave, and there was hardly any talking, only a murmur because of how afraid they were. The mothers
