(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)
The Blitz began on September 7, 1940. London was bombed for the next consecutive 57 days. The Blitz did not end until May 11, 1941, when a very severe raid killed over 3,000 Londoners.
As you know, The Blitz presented Churchill and the government with enormous and complex problems. Evacuate the children? Yes, but where and with whom would they stay? Families is rural areas were volunteering to take in children but would they be suitable families. Was a family prepared to take in six brothers and sister ranging in age from 2 to 14, two of whom were what were then called "problem children?"
What about parents who refused to send their children to the countryside?
How to you keep public morale high under the extreme duress of daily bombing? How do you convince people that when the "all clear" is sounded, they must not go to their homes to see if they are still standing and their families and neighbors all right, but instead stay at their jobs until their shifts have ended?
And then there was the matter Churchill felt compelled to deal with after almost two weeks of German bombing:
18.IX.40.I’ve been accused of making the memo up but you can find it in Churchill’s Their Finest Hour, vol. 2, pg 671 (Houghton Mifflin, 1949)
Prime Minister to Postmaster-General,
There are considerable complaints about the Post Office service during air raids. Prehaps you will give me a report on what you are doing.
As for what was done with the children, initially plans were made and orders given for their evacuation to safer areas. Some children even came to the States and lived out the war here.
But there was much resistance to evacuating the children and many problems settling them in new locations. The government soon adopted a “What the parent thinks best; HM's government will help provide options” approach that was followed throughout the remainder of the war.
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