The home front in World War Two Part three Evacuation

Aims of the lesson By the end of this lesson you will Understand why evacuations took place during the early months of the war Describe what conditions were like for evacuated children Empathise with the situation faced by children who were evacuated during the Blitz

Why evacuate? The government expected the Germans to bomb all the major cities They did not want to put children at risk and divided the country into three areas Evacuation areas Reception areas Neutral areas

The initial evacuation As soon as war was declared the first children were evacuated Posters and leaflets to encourage parents Buses and trains were used to evacuate children Others sent their children to relatives in Australia or Canada

The numbers involved people moved in September 1940 Schoolchildren Mothers and small children Pregnant women Blind and disabled Teachers (mainly women)

Evacuation experiences Many children did not know what was going on Many had good experiences and others had bad ones All children had a tag to identify them On arrival in the countryside they were allocated to a local family or individual

Evacuation experiences 2 First time that many children had been outside of London Many got homesick and returned home quickly Others stayed in the countryside Some were used as slaves or as cheap labour

The second and third waves Second wave took place during the blitz in 1940 The third wave took place after the V1 and V2 rockets began to fall on London in 1944 Most children evacuated during the second and third waves returned home in a matter of months