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Evacuation Of Children World War 2

Thanks, Beryl, tell us more about where you landed up and what you can remember of it.

The history books tell us that there were three main, official evacuations from the big cities. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the assumption was that any war would immediately result in widespread and devastating aerial attacks on centres of population. That was why the first evacuation took place from 1st September 1939, immediately that war looked wholly inevitable. It was of course a false alarm as the Luftwaffe stayed its hand for many, many months - the period of the "Phoney War" or the "Bore War" - and gradually two-thirds of the evacuees drifted back home over the next two or three months. The second evacuation, more the real thing and longer lasting, started on 13th May 1940, three days after the Germans attacked Belgium, Holland and France, and continued into July 1940. The third significant evacuation started in late June/early July 1944 and was sparked off by the first V1 attacks; it was more of a London thing, compared with the first two which were nationwide, and I assume that it barely affected Birmingham.

These were the official evacuations which involved some 1.5m. people in the first, 1.25m. in the second and around 1m. in the third. Of the three-quarters of a million unaccompanied children who were in the first evacuation, around half a miilion stayed away throughout 1940 and 1941 and their numbers only started to reduce early in 1942. Nevertheless a substantial number of children were still classified as "unaccompanied" and remained absent until well into 1945. Alongside all these childrens and sometimes their mothers and vulnerable adults, there were huge numbers of people involved in unofficial movements when individual families made their own arrangements, whole schools transferred to the countryside and some families even sent their children overseas, to the USA, Canada and Australia. One estimate suggests that there might have been an additional 2 million people involved in this further exodus.

But of course it is the official evacuations which are best recorded: those which involved the movement of children, often unaccompanied, who left their inner city areas, had a label tied on to them, were loaded onto trains and at the other end faced the great unknown. There must be many more experiences of the Birmingham evacuations amongst forum members and let's hope we hear some of them. (And in fact, whilst I have been typing this, mariew has set the ball rolling!)

Chris
Chris could you explain something to me? My family lived in New Malden Surrey, not so much a target for the Luftwaffe I would have thought, but the family including my mother, were evacuated to Birmingham! Moseley I think? I have never been able to understand the logic in that. Could you shead any light on this?
 
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It certainly sounds strange, edmc – I have heard plenty of stories of children being evacuated FROM Birmingham, but never TO!

I can offer no explanation, but just one or two suggestions. It seems to me that there is a possibility that an area like Moseley, even though part of Birmingham, would be regarded as something other than an inner-city area and therefore under no particular threat. This of course ignores the great inaccuracy of bombing at that time and the fact that even if the Luftwaffe was aiming at New Street Station or a big factory in Aston, there was absolutely no guarantee against far wider areas being affected. But I hardly feel that such a view would be official policy and therefore part of either of the first two evacuations in 1939 or 1940. In August 1940, however bad the bombing in areas several miles from London, no one could really have been confident that the provincial cities were any safer. I wonder therefore, if that was the date of your family's evacuation, whether the latter could have been something which was decided upon privately. (It seems that a large number of families decided to move their children to relatives and friends in safer areas, quite independently from the official schemes).

If on the other hand the evacuation took place in the summer of 1944, in response to the V1 and V2 attacks, I suppose that there could have been an official view then that Birmingham suburbs were much safer than areas adjacent to London. History tells us that very few of these dreadful devices fell in the Midlands and perhaps the authorities knew that it was unlikely to happen. (If the latter was the case, I wish that they had told my father: he always had the theory, which he was happy to share with us all, that if the middle of Birmingham was targeted, in view of the greater distance to be flown and the resulting inaccuracy, there would be a good chance of the things falling on areas several miles from the centre – which is where we were!)

Unless a member of this Forum can point to experience of incoming evacuees in the City, I think that you will need to research this from the New Malden end. There must be some information, perhaps in a local history group or similar, as to what happened to local children with regard to evacuation, especially in 1944. (I think also that there may be further articles on evacuations from Surrey in the BBC People's War archive which Pedrocut has already pointed us towards).

I hope that you can find something out and please let us know as and when you do. In the meantime, do you have any further information about the circumstances?

Chris
 
I was not evacuated from the Solihull area - as far as I know - my mother was no longer around and my father a soldier, so I was sent to the Stourbridge area to be with two school teachers, who had no children. Probably they were young and their home was new as the road was not yet made up. Later my father arranged a Nanny for me and I returned to my home.
Regarding incoming evacuees:
We received two boys, twins, from Wimbledon as evacuees, their home had been destroyed by bombing - probably a V2 at the latter stage of the war. Birmingham was regarded as a safer place in the last couple of years of WW2 that it had been,
As they were the same age as I was they may well still be alive. I remember their surname and their former home address. Their mother visited my home once to see them, but as they had a habit of stealing small bicycles did not stay very long with us.
 
It wasn't compulsory, even if you were in an area which was covered by the scheme. The decision was with the parents.

Chris
 
I remember the day they arrived. One of the teachers from my school and someone else, the driver I believe, brought them. They came by car. To a youngster it seemed strange to see a teacher not in a school. ;)
 
Fascinating! Thanks for that.
I have just looked at the Bomb map for New Malden Surrey 7 Oct 1940 to 6 June 1941 and the area in the immediate vicinity of my road was hit 11 times by High Explosive bombs. My family evacuated to Birmingham in 1944 when the V1 and V2 started to arrive.
 
It certainly sounds strange, edmc – I have heard plenty of stories of children being evacuated FROM Birmingham, but never TO!

I can offer no explanation, but just one or two suggestions. It seems to me that there is a possibility that an area like Moseley, even though part of Birmingham, would be regarded as something other than an inner-city area and therefore under no particular threat. This of course ignores the great inaccuracy of bombing at that time and the fact that even if the Luftwaffe was aiming at New Street Station or a big factory in Aston, there was absolutely no guarantee against far wider areas being affected. But I hardly feel that such a view would be official policy and therefore part of either of the first two evacuations in 1939 or 1940. In August 1940, however bad the bombing in areas several miles from London, no one could really have been confident that the provincial cities were any safer. I wonder therefore, if that was the date of your family's evacuation, whether the latter could have been something which was decided upon privately. (It seems that a large number of families decided to move their children to relatives and friends in safer areas, quite independently from the official schemes).

If on the other hand the evacuation took place in the summer of 1944, in response to the V1 and V2 attacks, I suppose that there could have been an official view then that Birmingham suburbs were much safer than areas adjacent to London. History tells us that very few of these dreadful devices fell in the Midlands and perhaps the authorities knew that it was unlikely to happen. (If the latter was the case, I wish that they had told my father: he always had the theory, which he was happy to share with us all, that if the middle of Birmingham was targeted, in view of the greater distance to be flown and the resulting inaccuracy, there would be a good chance of the things falling on areas several miles from the centre – which is where we were!)

Unless a member of this Forum can point to experience of incoming evacuees in the City, I think that you will need to research this from the New Malden end. There must be some information, perhaps in a local history group or similar, as to what happened to local children with regard to evacuation, especially in 1944. (I think also that there may be further articles on evacuations from Surrey in the BBC People's War archive which Pedrocut has already pointed us towards).

I hope that you can find something out and please let us know as and when you do. In the meantime, do you have any further information about the circumstances?

Chris
Thank s for this very informative response to my question! You are right my family was evacuated in Sept 1944 to Moseley, to the large house of a Mrs Reardon, which backed onto the Birmingham to London railway line. There was a zoo or city farm nearby. My mother wanted to keep the family together - she had 6 children, and also took 2 other children from New Malden with her to Birmingham. The older children -aged 13, 11, 8 and 6 went to a local school, travelling by tram. My 6 year old sister picked up a Birmingham accent! There were also 2 children from Dagenham evacuated there. They enjoyed their time in Birmingham making friends with the local children. My father who was in the Home Guard at home, visited at weekends and I was conceived at this time! The bomb map of New Malden looks horrendous, and my brother describes the V1 flying over and going silent when the engines cut out and watching to see where it would land. He also describes (and I am not sure about the accuracy of this) that the RAF would fly to intercept the V1 and fly level with it and tip its wings to throw it off course.
I will do as you suggest and get in touch with the New Malden History Society to find out about evacuees. thanks again for your help - much appreciated.
 
Birmingham seemed safe from V1 attacks but on Christmas Eve 1944 the Manchester area had a shock ...
Some information about V1 attacks outside the London area and the map shows that because they were air launched the impact sites were not accurate.
index.php


On Christmas Eve, 1944. 45 missiles air-launched from He-111s of KG53 approximately 40 miles off the east coast between Hornsea and Mablethorpe between 0500 and 0600 aiming at Manchester. A V1 flying bomb struck near the corner of Abbey Hills Road and Warren Lane and 27 people were killed and a further 49 people were injured.

See http://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-raid...e-v1-attack-on-manchester-christmas-eve-1944/

There is an account of the V1 which impacted near Newport in Shropshire.
 
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