One of the first points as to why the government evacuated people to the countryside was the threat of zeppelins. During World War One, the Germans used zeppelins as bombers. On May 31, 1915, the LZ-38 was the first zeppelin to bomb London, and other bombing raids on London, kings Lynn, Great Yarmouth and Paris followed. The airships could approach their targets silently and fly at altitudes above the range of British and French fighters. However, they never became effective offensive weapons. New planes with more powerful engines that could climb higher were built, and the British and French planes also began to carry ammunition that contained phosphorus, which would set the hydrogen-filled zeppelins afire. Several zeppelins were also lost because of bad weather, and 17 were shot down because they could not climb as fast as the fighters. At the end of the war, the German zeppelins that had not been captured were surrendered to the Allies by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and it looked like the Zeppelin Company would soon disappear. However, Eckener, who had assumed the company's helm after Count Zeppelin's death in 1917, suggested to the U.S. government that the company build a huge zeppelin for the U.S. military to use, which would allow the company to stay in business. Britain was watching as this was going on and new that something big was about to happen, they new evacuation ultimately would be the only option to keep people safe. The development of plane also intensified the threat of other bombings.
In April 1937, Guernica was the first city to be deliberately targeted for aerial bombing. Guernica was the ancient capital of the Basques - a group who had withstood the advances of the army since the Spanish Civil War begun in 1936. The region's resilient stand was punished by Franco when he allowed the unprotected city to be bombed by Hitler's air force. Franco's Nationalists had little air force power. But Nazi Germany was very keen to try out its developing Luftwaffe. Hitler had sent out to Spain his Condor Legion lead by Lieutenant Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, cousin of the Red Baron of World War One. The raid was to have enormous consequences in the diplomatic workings of Europe with Chamberlain's three meetings with Hitler in September 1938. Chamberlain, above all else, feared the possibility of a southern English city being similarly bombed. Not only the Spanish civil war but Germans had also developed the tactic of blitzkrieg (lightening war) and used heavy bombing to soften up the polish. Therefore, what happened in Guernica in April 1937 was to impact what happened in Western Europe in 1938 with Britain evacuating London.
When Nazi Germany openly started re-armament in 1935, few should have been surprised as Hitler had made it very clear both in his speeches and in "Mein Kampf" that he would break the "unjust" terms of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1933, Hitler ordered his army generals to prepare to treble the size of the army to 300,000 men. He ordered the Air Ministry to plan to build 1,000 war planes. Military buildings such as barracks were built. He withdrew from the Geneva Disarmament Conference when the French refused to accept his plan that the French should disarm to the level of the Germans or that the Germans should re-arm to the level of the French. Either way, the two main powers of Europe would be balanced. Hitler knew that the French would not accept his plan and therefore when he withdrew from the conference, he was seen by some as the politician who had a more realistic approach to foreign policy and the French were seen as the nation that had caused Nazi Germany to withdraw. Britain and France did nothing to stop German rearmament as many people in both countries were more worried by the power of the communist USSR. Rearmament had an effect on the government evacuating as the realized Germany was rearming but it wasn’t for the USSR. This resulted in London being evacuated for safety.
The first Nuremburg rallies by the Nazi Party took place in 1923 in Munich and 1926 in Weimar. From 1927 on, they ran exclusively in Nuremberg. Nuremberg was selected for certain reasons: It was situated in the center of the German Reich and the local Luitpoldhain was well suited as a venue. The Nazi Party was able to rely on the well organized local strand of the party in Franconia, and then led by Gauleiter Julius Streicher. After 1933, the rallies were held in the first half of September under the label of Reichsparteitage des deutschen Volkes ("National Congress of the (Nazi Party of the German People"), which was meant to symbolize the solidarity between the German people and the Nazi Party. This point was further emphasized by the yearly growing number of participants, which finally reached over half a million from all sections of the party, the army and the state. The Nuremberg Rallies was almost a religious focus on Adolf Hitler, portraying Hitler as Germany's savior, chosen by providence. The gathered masses listened to the Fuehrer’s speeches, swore loyalty and marched before him. Representing the Volksgemeinschaft as a whole, the rallies served to demonstrate the might of the German people. The visitors of the rallies by their own free will were subordinate to the discipline and order in which they should be reborn as new people. With the Nuremburg rallies it just shows how ‘great’ Germany was with certain military scenes. Britain was scared of the actions Germany was taking and decided to take action early, explaining evacuation policies adopted by the government.
In World War Two from September 1939 to April 1940 when, after the blitzkrieg attack on Poland in September 1939, seemingly nothing happened this was called the ‘Phoney war’. Many in Great Britain expected a major calamity – but the title ‘Phoney War’ summarises what happened in Western Europe – near enough nothing. In Western Europe very little of military importance did take place. In fact, so little occurred that many of the children who had been evacuated at the start of the war, had returned to their families. To many, war had been declared by Neville Chamberlain, but nothing was actually happening many evacuees began to drift back to the cities, prompting re-newed propaganda campaigns from the government to leave them (kids) where they are.
In 1939 conscription was introduced, most men aged between 18 and 40 had to do military service; this meant that a lot of the civil defence work and work in factories and on farms had to be done by women. As a result of this all single women between 19 and 30 had to register for war work. They worked in Auxiliary services, in the land army or in industry. Although married women were not ‘called up’, many volunteered anyway, this showed how loyal they were to their country and many women managed to look after their families as well, but with the British government using propaganda with evacuation most children were evacuated for safety and to ensure that the mothers could devote all their time to war work. The filling of the ‘Labour gap’ by women was a welcomed side effect of evacuation.
The children that were not evacuated from London were affected badly. They were growing up in a world full of violence, crime and death. Children from the age of 8 were smoking, playing with live ammunition and carrying around guns as if it was normal. When mothers were doing war work the children would be playing in rubble were hundreds of unexploded bombs would have been, The government tried sending out posters to all parents of the children to evacuate immediately but some would just miss them too much and decided to keep them in London. The whole policy of evacuation had been deigned fairly to avoid the de-sensitization of children to violence.
The Germans aim was clear that they wanted to bomb the British people into giving up and to crush British morale. As the government knew how important it was to control news of the Blitz and to keep up morale. Fathers away at war could concentrate on fighting the Germans safe in knowledge that their children were out of harm’s way in the countryside. This kept up morale and fighting spirit within the soldiers and armed forces. The government was quick to realize that death of children would greatly hamper the War effort.
As you can see from the details above there were many reasons why the British Government decided to evacuate children, the main points being to keep up morale of fighting soldiers and to keep future generations safe. Without children being safe in World War Two, Britain would have really been at their lowest point and there would have been nothing to fight for. Evacuation was the only option for the Government at that time especially because of the preparations undertaking in Germany at that time.
