WHY DID THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT DECIDE TO EVACUATE CHILDREN FROM BRITAIN'S MAJOR CITIES AT THE START OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR?
The evacuation of children from Britain's main cities was seen as a precaution against bombing raids during the second world war. The ARP (Air Raid Precaution) Warden was created in 1939. Their job was to ensure that the streets were empty and people were safe in air raid shelters or indoors during an air raid. They had to make sure that no light was visible from people's homes and people were wearing their gas masks They also had to deal with the damage left behind after the air raid. It was thought to be more safe for the children to be taken out of the cities and into smaller town and villages in the countryside while the bombings continued. The first evacuations began on 1st September 1939, this was two days before the war started. The second evacuation began after Germany had taken over most of France.
There were a number of reasons the British Government chose to do this. They were concerned for the safety and morale of the British people during German air raids during WW1 when there were air raids over southern England and the people began to panic. After Zeppelin raids had continued at a rate of 2 a month, killing 9 people the German airforce realised they were not as effective as they might have hoped so they devised a long range bomber aircraft named Gotha. On June 13 1917 after a Gotha fleet of planes, which was made specifically to attack England, dropped bombs onto southern England and London and this happened daily with little opposition from the British which angered the people of London who believed that the Government was not capable of protecting them. They demanded the RAF protect them as they felt exposed and helpless. The Zeppelin/Gotha raids resulted in 1500 civilian deaths as well as 1900 wounded. Damage from the raids totaled £3,000,000, this worried the Government and they knew that had to take...