Evacuation in World War II

When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 British leaders were worried that a new war might begin. By 1934 afraid that large British towns and cities such as London, Coventry and Portsmouth would be the main targets for German bombing raids, they started putting together secret plans to move those that were most vulnerable like children, pregnant women and disabled people out of the big cities and into rural areas.

This graph shows the different categories of people evacuated during World War II.

The first evacuation which was called Operation Pied Piper took place 3 days prior to the breakout of World War II. However because no bombs had been dropped in the first months of the war, 60% of evacuees had returned home by January 1940. Once the raids did start in 1940 many parents still refused to send their children away or even worse brought them back.

Britain was split into 3 areas either: evacuation, neutral or reception, the evacuation areas were big cities like London, Coventry and Portsmouth. No evacuees left or were received in neutral areas. The reception areas where the destinations for the evacuees and would be houses in rural areas of the UK like Cornwall, Devon and parts of Wales. Evacuation was a success because it made people aware of the poor living conditions in the cities it also saved the lives of over 700,000 people who were most vulnerable also the British government had it very well organised for such a big job. I think evacuation was a good idea because it saved many peoples lives but many evacuees were treated badly and forced to work on farms and were abused by their billetors. When the evacuees interviewed years after the war where asked if they would send their children away they all replied no.

This propaganda poster which was distributed in world war 2 shows two young children with their mother in a rural area not far from a city there are bombs going off in background and Hitler is whispering take them back. This poster would have been effective as people hated Hitler and were likely to do the opposite of what he is saying. The poster was to try and stop parents bringing their children back because of the “phoney war”.

A local 'billeting officer' was appointed to find suitable houses in all areas that were receiving evacuees.In January and February 1939 the Government conducted an 'accommodation census' to find out how many billets were available. Local people called 'visitors' interviewed householders in reception areas, and filled in census forms. Officials used these forms to decide how many evacuees could be billeted in each area.

These are the compulsory luggage for a typical evacuee there is a gasmask, identity cards a ration booklet a box for the gasmask and some instructions for putting on the gasmask.

Children were not the only ones evacuated pregnant mothers were also evacuated along with blind people and teachers were also evacuated to help with schooling of the evacuees. The areas

evacuated were: London including West Ham, East Ham, Walthamstow, Leyton, Ilford and Barking in Essex; Tottenham, Hornsey, Willesden, Acton and Edmonton in Middlesex; the Medway towns of Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester; Portsmouth, Gosport and Southampton; Birmingham, Smethwick; Liverpool, Bootle, Birkenhead and Wallasey; Manchester and Salford; Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford and Hull; Newcastle and Gateshead; Edinburgh, Rosyth, Glasgow, Clydebank and Dundee.

I think being an evacuee must have been horrible and frightening at first, being sent to some strange place you’ve never seen and people you’ve never met and not sure if you would ever see you’re parents again. Some children were sent to farms and made to work whereas some were sent to big country houses. Lots of evacuees had never seen the countryside or farm animals before and were afraid of them, others were surprised to find that apples grew on trees. Some well off families were disgusted to find that many of the children had head lice and skin disease.

In areas that missed the V-weapon assault such as Birmingham the full scale return, known as de-vacuation began on 6th of December 1944. However in the south of England de-vacuation was completed in March 1945. In London eight dispersal points were set up for the returning evacuees where they could eat and get a warm welcome home the whole de-vacuation to London was spread over 4 weeks.

Not all children wanted to go home though some children had a far better life in the countryside than they did in the city. Sometimes when children did return home they weren’t even recognised by their parents as they had been gone for over five years.

Evacuees returning home.