Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain(TM)s major cities in the early years of the Second World War?

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Alexandra Mente 10V

Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain’s major cities in the early years of the Second World War?

        In 1939 Germany declared war on Poland, as a result, France and Britain declared war on Germany.  Even before World War Two broke out, it was obvious that the prime targets of the German bombers would be Britain’s major cities.  The countryside would be pointless for the Germans to bomb as there were no built up areas and few factories in the countryside.  The government decided it would be safer for the children living in large, industrialised cities if they were moved to the countryside.  This was called evacuation or operation ‘Pied Piper`.  On the 1st September 1939, two days before the beginning of World War Two, the government decided to evacuate children, mothers with children under school age, expectant mothers, teachers and handicapped people from the cities into areas of the country side where there were no significant targets.  The government predicted that around 3.5 million people would choose to be evacuated to the countryside but in the end only around 1.5 million did.  But why did the government think this was necessary with so many other things to think about?  There are many reasons why the British Government decided to evacuate children from Britain’s major cities.  Arguably one of the most important reasons was the attitudes of the government.  The government probably wanted to enhance their reputation and seem as if they cared about the children of Britain to the public.  The government feared that there would be low morale if children were killed during bombings of the major cities so they wanted to get children out of the cities to the countryside where they would be safe from air raids and gas attacks.  Also, the children were not needed to help the war effort so they would not need to stay in the cities.  Another attitude of the government was that as most factory workers were men who went away to fight in the war, women were needed to work in the factories to make ammunition and prepare the country for war.  Women couldn’t work in the factories if they had children to look after.  The government decided that evacuating children to the countryside would mean more women were free to work.  These are just a few reasons why the British Government decided to evacuate children from Britain’s major cities.

        There were also some very important long term causes for evacuation.  For example, experiences of World War One.  Towards the end of World War One faster and better planes were developed.  Although bombing had not been widely used in World War One it had accounted for the deaths of over 1500 British citizens.  For the first time the British civilians were vulnerable when previously they had been safe from invasion.  Many people remembered the bombings of World War One and how they had destroyed buildings.  One person said ‘The whole street seemed to explode.’ And ‘worst of all were the screams of the wounded and dying’ when describing an air raid on Folkestone in May 1917.  The government took measures to protect its citizens from future attacks.  The east coast was guarded and defences were introduced against air attacks.  However, World War Two was expected to be far worse than World War One as technology had advanced dramatically.  Bombers could now carry large amounts of bombs over hundreds of miles.  The planes would have also been more manoeuvrable and more precise as to where the bombs landed.  The people of Britain had new fears of invasion as air attacks seemed inevitable in World War Two.  This was an important cause because the government feared that there would be many more casualties in World War Two than there were in the First World War.  Therefore, the British civilians needed to be protected and evacuation was one of the main options.

        By World War One the Germans had developed Zeppelin airships which could reach a maximum speed of 136kph and reach a height of 4250 metres.  The Zeppelin had five machine-guns and could carry 2,000 kg of bombs. In January 1915 the first zeppelin attack on Britain occurred.  Two 190 metre long Zeppelins bombed Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn.  Houses were damaged and two people were killed.  The first raid on London was on 31st May 1915, 28 people were killed and 60 injured in the air raid.  Zeppelin attacks continued in 1915 and 1916.  Many places suffered from Zeppelin attacks and by the end of May 1916 at least 550 British civilians had been killed by German Zeppelins.  The British used barrage balloons to defend themselves and sent fighter planes to intercept them.  British fighter pilots and anti-aircraft gunners became very good at bringing down Zeppelins. In 1917 the British defences stopped the Zeppelin attacks.  Zeppelins could deliver successful long-range bombing attacks, but were vulnerable to attack and bad weather.  As Zeppelins were filled with hydrogen, they burst into flames when hit.  The crew had little chance of surviving.  These experiences of World War One showed the British government that the Germans would be willing to bomb Britain in the Second World War Two.  This was an important cause because it showed that air attacks were inevitable in World War.  This links to fears of invasion because the government then feared casualties, therefore the government thought about evacuation as a way to protect the British civilians from these future air attacks.  Also, if the Germans did bomb Britain in the Second World War, they would use more up to date technology.  The planes would be more powerful and accurate and would probably be able to cause more casualties.  These extra casualties would link with the low morale.  If more children were killed there would be low morale across Britain.  This made the government even more determined to protect Britain’s children from the bombings.  That was important because it meant that the government would want to find the best way of protecting children, even if that meant sending them away to other parts of the country.

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        In the lead up to World War Two, European governments had been terrified of bombing.  The German Air force, Luftwaffe, took a role in the Spanish civil war where they carried out mass bombings on the Basque town of Guernica on April 26th 1937.  The destruction and deaths of innocent civilians during the bombing of Guernica showed Britain the devastation that bombing could cause Britain.  Also that same year the Japanese invasion of China showed how effective use of bombers could contribute to a successful invasion.  Several Chinese cities had been terrorised, forcing China to give in.  This links with the ...

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