Why the British Government Decided to Evacuate Children in the Early Years of the Second World War During world war 2 children were evacuated in their thousands from London and other major cities to be dispersed to more secluded rural regions, out of range of German bombers flying from occupied France, or less at risk of attack. For many young evacuees, forced to live for years in some cases with strange people and in unfamiliar places, it was often a traumatic displacement. The policy may have saved many children, but it was later looked on as excessive and was reversed as the war progressed. The first mass bombing of civilians took place in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. German planes destroyed the town of Guernica. The pictures were broadcast internally, and shocked the world. The destruction of Guernica convinced governments around the world that bombing civilian targets would be a feature of modern warfare. They were convinced that they would not be able to protect their citizens. British government believed its declaration of war would be quickly followed by massive German air attacks on Britain's population. Which then the costs of casualties would raise, there wouldn't be enough space and recourses in hospitals, and Britain would have an increased number of deaths. In the first few days of September 1939, nearly 3,000,000 people were transported to the countryside, which were mostly children, others including pregnant women and other vulnerable people such as the disabled. Some were also sent overseas to commonwealth countries such as Australia and South Africa, mainly to reduce the number of deaths in the country. They thought that they would be home before Christmas. It was usually the poorer children were not used to travelling. The wealthier family children were not upset on an average compared to the other. This was because they were used to travelling and being long distances away. Some parents even visited their children at weekends. Within a week, a quarter of the population of Britain would have new addresses.
Evaluation of the Success of the Evacuation of Children from Major British Cities during World War II
World War Two, like other great wars, impacted the lives of many people, and although widely remembered in a negative light, World War Two changed the social attitudes of the majority. Especially in the Borough of Bexley.
[4] From the memoirs of J.B Gent a Child in the war who lived on
Although women had the opportunity to work, many of them had children that needed to be taken care of while they worked. Some mothers relied on family members and friends to take care of their children, while others had to place their children in childcare centers. While young children were being taken care of, children who were old enough went to school. “Bay Area schoolchildren were enthusiastically enlisted into wartime activities, such as collecting scrap and buying Victory Stamps, but they were also identified as particularly vulnerable victims of wartime social changes” (Doc. B). Children could help out with the war effort whether they were at home or at
The act of applying conscription during the First and Second World Wars have nearly torn Canada apart. The conscription crisis of 1917 was a treacherous event that occurred during the First World War. During this time the relations between Quebec and the rest of Canada were in an all time low in our Canadian history. The Québécois thought conscription was merely unnecessary no matter what circumstance; while all other Canadians did essentially want conscription occur. The contrast was inevitably high on the issue of conscription between the Québécois and the rest of Canada thus creating a solution when conscription was indeed needed was impossible. However while William Lyon Mackenzie King was the Prime Minister during the Second World War; he reacted differently in comparison to Robert Borden. Although King promised not to introduce conscription as did Borden in his campaign race; he dealt the issue of conscription in a more controlled manner. Essentially Mackenzie King approached the issue of conscription using prior knowledge learnt from World War One.
Why the British Government Decided to Evacuate Children from Britain's Major Cities in the Early Years of the Second World War
Even before War with Germany was accredited, the British government felt that it was necessary to shield the civilian inhabitants, especially children; pregnant mothers, disabled people and teachers accompanied them. The government decided to evacuate children from the major cities into rural areas. They had many reasons for doing this, each of them mainly linked to fear of civilian casualties.
The first world war saw a lot of refusal towards the war effort by men which made the government afraid due to the futile and indiscriminate slaughter of the British army at the battle of the Somme in 1916 where General Haig's tactics failed to show success which resulted in Britain losing a vast majority of soldiers by 1916. Therefore the government feared that they might lose World War one as well because there a lot of casualties which needed to be replaced and many men were becoming antisocial and refused to join the war, these people were known as conscientious objector or short for C.Os. Some C.Os did not want to fight in the war but were keen to do there bit in the war, so they were willing to help out in weapon factories and go to the trenches and became stretcher bearers theses types of C.Os were known as non commandant, however some C.Os were total refused to do any type of military work these were known as the absolutists. By 1916 volunteers to join the war started drying up,as their was many reasons why men refused, being that they pacifists who isolated themselves from a type of violences, political objector who went against the idea that Germany were their enemy, and religious objector who followed the words of the bible which says “thou shell not kill” so they were against the idea of shedding blood of their own kind. Consequently, Britain introduced conscription in 1916 where the law stated that you had to severe your country in the military for a certain time period this only went for unmarried mans. But in 1916 the military services act got introduced which widened conscription to married man as well. Conscription increased the power of the British army massively which was what the Government wanted as they neede...
discussion is set in the times of the World War 1. During World War 1,
Through selection at the extermination camps, the Nazis forced children to be separated from their relatives which destroyed the basic unit of society, the family. Because children were taken to different barracks or camps, they had to fend for themselves. In the book A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal, the author describes the relief he felt when reunited with his mother after the War.
Machel, Graca & Sebastian Salgado. The Impact of War on Children. London: C. Hurst, 2001.
Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed in the war. Sometimes they are even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (British Job p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on a path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate and innocent children. Over the years, many militants and rebel groups have propped up across Africa. Because of the existence of these rebel groups, they trained children as their Jetton.
Singer, P.W. “Children at War.” Military History 24.6 (2007): 1-5. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
Six hours later, France would also declare war on Germany. In May 1940, Britain would get a more aggressive pro-war leader, Winston Churchill, to replace Neville Chamberlain. Later that month, on May 26, 1940, in the face of a large-scale German attack, British soldiers on the home front were forced to perform one of the largest evacuations in history, The Evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast. From July through October, the British people suffered during the Battle of Britain, which was a lot of intense German bombings. But, the Royal Air Force successfully defended its homeland from the German Luftwaffe, and the Nazis were unable to crush British morale.