The heavy bombing was expected in Britain’s largest industrial centres. Britain was then divided into three zones. The first of these was called the evacuation areas, where heavy bombing was expected. The reception areas were mostly in the countryside and safe from bombing. The evacuees would move here and stay with local families. The final zone was known as neutral areas, which might suffer light attacks. Nobody would be evacuated from or into these areas by the government.
On the 1st September 1939, the day Hitler’s Germany invaded Poland and Britain declared war on Germany, the first waves of evacuation were carried out. Over the following weekend, 827,000 school children, 524,000 mothers of pre-school children, 13,000 pregnant women, 7,000 blind and disabled and 103,000 teachers were evacuated. Two million people also made their own private arrangements for evacuation to places such as North America, although this figure is not exact. The ‘black out’ was also introduced on this day, so that German bombers could not see their targets at nighttime, which is when they usually flew.
The afternoon of the 7th of September 1940 was a gloriously sunny one. Many Londoners were enjoying the late summer sunshine when at 4.36 p.m. the air raid sirens started. Within minutes of this, wave after wave of German bombers appeared, showering London with bombs, with the East End, near to the factories and docks, being worst hit. The ‘all clear’ did not sound until over twelve hours later the next morning. This led to another wave of evacuation as most of the people that had stayed in the cities now felt that there was a serious danger to themselves and their children well being. From June to December 1940, there were a number of other key events that also triggered more waves of evacuation throughout Britain e.g. the Battle of Britain, the Fall of France.
Civil defence workers, firemen, ambulance drivers and ARP (air raid precaution) wardens were also recruited and trained to help and deal with the aftermath of the bombing each day. The government also used radio, magazines and posters as propaganda to persuade parents to evacuate their children to the countryside.
The main reason why the British government evacuated children from Britain’s major cities is undisputedly because of the threat of bombing by the German planes and the risk to their lives and health. Other reasons would be that keeping people in the cities would not only cost lives, but also military resources by looking after civilian casualties. Also, with more casualties, this would have affected the morale of the public.
Joseph Smart, 11:1
Explain the differing reactions of the British people to the policy of evacuating children in the Second World War?
For many children evacuating was a terrifying experience, as thoughts would have been running through their minds such as where were they going? If they ever returned, would their homes be demolished or their parents killed. The actual evacuation process itself was often a fiasco too as when the evacuees reached the reception areas there were many problems. Quite often things were not very organised. For example, villages expecting young children would receive hundreds of pregnant women instead. In other places, the villagers inspected the evacuees and picked out the ones they wanted, leaving behind any they though might be more difficult to look after than the next one.
The German aim was to bomb was to bomb the British people into surrender. The British government realised this and knew that morale had to be kept high during this very difficult time. Newspapers were not allowed to show pictures of mutilated bodies and smashed houses. Instead, they were full of reports and photographs concentrated on the heroism if the rescue services and everyone’s determination to carry on as normally as possible and working together in good humour.
What is certain is that both evacuee and host had to adjust to a new way of life very quickly. This was down to a culture clash between the two of them, with the host usually belonging to the higher class then the evacuee. This became apparent when, for example, the evacuees did not even have any basic toilet issues, with reports of children ‘fouling’ gardens and walls of the house (indoors) and also with hair crawling with lice and bed-wetting. The country people were shocked at the obvious poverty and deprivation of the town children, not to mention their bad manners, as many evacuees could not settle in the countryside. They would become homesick as most of the children were away from their homes and family for the first time. Some would return home as the stress of living in others people’s homes became too much.
When the evacuees were first sent away to the country, they were often very thin, badly clothed and were not used to keeping themselves clean. Many host families were also short of money too as the allowance they were given for looking after the evacuees did not rise when the food prices did. There was a lot of support for the government to support the hosts more at this time and Women’s Institutes all over England published many different reports to highlight these problems. They stated things such as “the state of the children was such that the school had to be fumigated”, “the children were filthy. We have never seen so many verminous children lacking any knowledge of clean habits. They had not had a bath for months”, “many of the mothers and children were bed wetters” and “some of the children were sent in their ragged little garments. Most of the children were walking on the ground, their shoes had no soles and just uppers hanging together”. Although it was later admitted that these reports were often over-exaggerated, they do have a large element of truth in them and they therefore show what a high level of poverty the evacuees were coming from. It was not all gloom however, as some of the hosts were quoted as saying things like “My six lads from London are making this dreary, lonely war not only tolerable, but often enjoyable” and “some children from poor areas have become almost unrecognisable within a few weeks. One small girl was so chubby that she needed a larger size gas mask”. These statements show that both host and evacuee could live a fulfilled life during the war and that the evacuees often over-indulged themselves and, for example, found it very hard to say no when there was food on the table, as they would never have had the opportunity to do this at home.
The culture class was, on occasions, also reversed, with the evacuee being of a higher class. Public school kids were generally better looked after than the normal evacuees. However, those rich and middle class children that did not have their own arrangements were sent to stay with people in the country and were surprised at how much work they were told to do e.g. helping out their host at work, whereas “Father would never ask us to help him at work”. These middle class evacuees also wished that the common view of evacuees by the country people could be changed so that they were not stereotyped or undermined in they way they were. They were not given the luxuries they were used to receiving at home, whereas the working class who went to similar places would have felt they were been treated as royalty.
There were some parents who called their children to come back home to the city during times of e.g. The Phoney War or those that did simply not send them away in the first place. These people did appear to have a lack of understanding concerning evacuation and the lethal threat they were putting on their children who were powerless and could not have a say on the matter. The majority of the population thought this the wrong thing to do but there was still a small proportion that continued to do it.
Many of the civil defence workers, ARP warden’s etc. were often only part time workers and had other jobs. A lot of the workers were women too, with one sixth of ARP wardens being female. The bravery of these people to help with casualties raised the morale amongst people in the city and even created a good sense of camaraderie. Those that stayed would usually shelter in their own homes (such as under the stairs or in the basement or cellar) if there was an air raid, but also would shelter in their home shelters, public shelters and even underground stations, as many Londoners would buy platform tickets for the London Underground and then camp in the station for the evening.
