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Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in early years of the Second World War.

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Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in early years of the Second World War Terror shook down the spine of the British public when in September 1939 World War Two broke out and then by June 1940 much of Europe had been taken over by Germany. The German realised that the way to invade and conquer Britain was to control the skies; therefore the Germans attacked the British airfields and radar stations. Then the Germans leader Adolph Hitler changed his tactics and decided to bomb Britain's main cities. Evacuation began as soon as the war broke out; evacuation is when children from the major towns and cities were moved to the countryside for safety from the Germans bombing the cities. ...read more.


Many people regretted evacuating when the expected bombing of cities did not take place until 1939. By January 1940, an estimated one million evacuees had returned home. Which was not a good idea. World War Two was the first time the home front got a taste of intense bombing. In world war one mainly coastal areas were bombed and the bombs weren't as effective as new technology in 1940. The affects of bombing during world war one helped the government thinking because they had an idea of what the Germans were planning to do e.g. turning all lights off so the Germans didn't have any targets. And Britain realised that the shelters weren't as affective as evacuation. So you could say Britain learnt a lot from the war. ...read more.


Women were also being evacuated and they could help in the war effort by growing there own food and rationing essential items. If the children had not been evacuated then thousands of children could have been tormented by psychological damage after seeing family and friends dying from the bombs. Also as the children were not in the cities it left the hospitals for war casualties. Evacuation is a very clever plan and if it meant saving the children by taking them away from there homes then I think it was very necessary. The bombing came later than expected so the children went back home, this was a disaster as many of them lost their lives. I believe the government was right in the decision in evacuating children. ...read more.

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