Evacuation

Question 1

State 8 facts to do with evacuation (2)

Answer 1

1. For four days in September 1939 the government took over Britain’s entire transport system. All the buses and trains were used to move the more vulnerable people away from the places most likely to be bombed.
2. Thousands of children were armed with suitcases full of clothes, a gas mask packed into a cardboard box, and a name tag tied to their coats.

Question 2

State 8 facts to do with evacuation (2)

Answer 2

3. There were 2 main methods of finding a new home or ‘foster family’.
   GRAB A CHILD - the children were lined up and local people would choose the ones they wanted. The clean girls would go first…and the scruffy little boys would be left until last.
4. METHOD 2 HUNT THE HOME
   Evacuated children were led around the town or village and taken door-to-door.

Question 3

State 8 facts to do with evacuation (2)

Answer 3

5. Some children settled down happily and loved their new lives in their new homes and schools but others hated country life and were homesick.
6. Some of the ‘rougher’ evacuees shocked their foster families by swearing and being naughty.

Question 4

State 8 facts to do with evacuation (2)

Answer 4

7. After a few months of life in the British countryside, many children returned to their city lives. The enemy bombers hadn’t arrived and by March 1940 one million children had gone home. However, later that year ‘the Blitz’ which was the mass bombing of British cities began. Many children returned to the country.
8. When some of the children finally returned home, they found their homes bombed, parents missing and 40,000 children remained ‘unclaimed’ after the war!