Evacuation wouldn’t happen now would it?

Would it? My grandmother sent 4 children out of London to the countryside in WW2. The night before she had had to push them under the table to protect them in the event the roof fell in. Her desire to be with them mattered less to her than their lives. People didn't 'lose' their children to evacuation, they were saved. As it happens my dad remembered his evacuation it as a very happy time. Though I realise this wasn't the case for all, he recalls eating well, fresh air and so on.

You don't think your children being actually killed by an airstrike would be harder to bear than them being evacuated to the countryside and you having to live with uncertainty?

That's why parents evacuated their kids in WWII. They knew they might not see their kids again, they knew that they themselves as adults could be killed remaining in urban areas. It must have been painful and terrible for them but still better than the alternative.

In the first world war, poison gas was used on the battlefield. The fear of it led to all UK residents being issued with gas masks in anticipation, in 1938. It was never used either in a battlefield or against civilians, arguably for fear of retaliation.

In the 1930s following an article on arial bombing, and due to the experience of limited bombing of civilians in ww1 many city councils did not build air raid shelters as "the bomber would always get through".

Some always assume a future conflict would become nuclear. Whilst most countries would have a red line, usually involving invasion and inability to contain an invasion (Israel and the Gideon option) it is not a certainly.

Would it? Losing my children through evacuation and not knowing they were safe and potentially never being reunited is the most unimaginatively hard thing I can think of. It wouldn’t be the last thing on my mind at all!

We need to make sure this doesn’t happen. We need to hope and encourage society to settle. For kindness and tolerance to prevail over bitterness and power hungry old men.

Is there enough room in the countryside? 😂😂

The world has changed since then. Needs are met in different ways. So much so it's not really possible to transpose the world at war in the 40s to modern times. However on the point of remote working, clearly many necessary roles could be performed remotely. Teaching, medical consultations, government at various levels, management and administration of essential industries, advice and welfare, banking, legal etc. Now, as then, I imagine the emphasis would be on keeping life as normal as possible as much as possible and if jobs could be done, they would be. Manufacturing has changed, with far fewer people needed to make essentials, so, even if the factories existed (they mostly don't now) there wouldn't be the need for so many workers.

Omg I'm well embarrassed. Enjoy the celebrations!

My mum and her younger brother were evacuated to the US, where they had an aunt who ran a boarding school (girl’s school with a boy’s school next door). My mum missed her family terribly but had an ok time and made lifelong friends. however she thinks her brother may have been abused at his school. They went to different people every school holiday and never knew where they were going. She had some amazing experiences (summer on a ranch in Arizona!) but I think was still traumatised by never knowing where she was going to be.

i have a friend whose mum got evacuated from London to a family in Cornwall who she stayed in touch with and visited over the years afterwards.

In WWII some children (and women) were evacuated to Canada and Australia, whether they would welcome British children now is another question.

I know there were some awful things that happened to some evacuees but others made life long friendships.

My grandmother was married in 1940, her bed was taken over by 'Polly' who was an evacuee from London, she had 4 brothers and instructions to not split the family up. My great grandmother's next door neighbour could take the boys but didn't have room for a girl so she ended up sleeping at my great grandmother's. Polly and one of my great aunts were still writing to each other 20 years later.

@channelislander My dad's next door neighbours were on holiday in the Chanel Islands, they were queuing to pay to go in to something, the person on the gate recognised their accents, asked where they were from and let them in for free. Apparently a lot of CI evacuees were billeted in Lancashire.

@PyongyangKipperbangif your DGF was in Burma, then he would have experienced some horrific atrocities. He's lucky to have survived, although he might not see it as 'luck'. Poor man.

My great nan lived through evacuation. She was one of five siblings and there were all separated. Over the years they managed to find each other again/be returned home, except one sister. My nan (the oldest) spoke of her often, I think it broke her never getting her sister back.
I don't think I could send my DC away. It's not natural.

Coming from a Channel Islands perspective, I believe if it were necessary then people would still send their children away. The Occupation was brutal in so many ways, and even as living memory dwindles people are very aware of the conditions islanders were living under. It wasn't the threat of being bombed that drove island families to evacuate in the same way it was in the UK; it was the threats of starvation, deportation, and life under a fascist regime.

If that immediate threat came to pass again, I think many would choose to evacuate. I don't think it would be quite such a shot-in-the-dark though, I imagine either families would evacuate as a household, parents would send children to live with mainland relatives, or schools would evacuate as a unit the way some did back in 1940. People wouldn't just send their children off with no plan these days.

I imagine the ease of distance communication would influence people's decision too.

I think people will probably just do what was best for them it was a pointless exercise sending children away during war .there was hardly any fighting on British soil at the time the children came back home then the nazi started bombing.and I think lots if folk visited there relatives even although they didn't admit it .it sometimes was better to risk covid than be totally devastating not see your child /relative for months bugger that .the torie government could hardly prosecute rule brakers they to busy at garden parties that lot

Apparently my great grand mother got part way through and just could not hand my Nana (and her siblings) over. I honestly don’t know if I would be willing to turn my children over to strangers. It’s an unimaginable decision at the end of the day. Mind you, if there was all out war these days we would all be wiped out regardless of if we were in the city or not, so I’d rather they were with us than strangers as morbid as that is…

No, just chat generated from recollections of evacuation of children during ww2!

My grandmother hated the phrase "There is a war on, if you havent noticed" as an excuse for everything. Stealing, lying, cheating the system, profiteering.

Spivs especially.

For every good person trying their best there will be another who will exploit desperation for profit. Look at all the people selling bog roll and hand sanitizer for 20x the original price during covid.

ETA and yes of course curtain twitching and reporting others for perceived crimes.

It could happen and there would be people ready to officiate compliance even though they have no right to. Just like the "concerned" members of the public walking around with their own fucking tape measure during covid. There would also be a bunch of wankers trying to exploit and extort people for lovely lovely profits. People who use it as an excuse to commit crimes and abuse of others.

And, all those abusing the situation will claim "I am only doing the right thing for your/their own good" while they're getting their power trip on.

Time means nothing where human nature is concerned.

You’d come together and room would be found for you. You would be safe and find a way to manage.

London's the safest place to be from missiles. Like Kyiv, you have the Underground to shelter in. It would also be well protected.

You have to get a grip and stop worrying about something that's unlikely to happen. The papers talk it up as nuclear and such rubbish to get you to read it.

If you don't get a grip, your daughter will pick up on it, they always do and you don't want her worried, do you.

Killing myself laughing at the "work from home" thing! As if the internet would even still be available for the general public most of the time!

Seriously, you think that your job sending reports on the international manufacturing market will be of any fucking interest during an ACTUAL WAR?!

Do some reading, educate yourselves on the reality of what went on in WWII.

Clothes, food, medical care, defences. That was all that was focussed on. The essentials for life. So your 21st century Big Job wont matter a jot. You would be in manufacturing, making the things that are needed, caring for the ill and disabled or in active service. You would be conscripted to do it, as they were then, there was no "opt out". Thats it.

Careful young uns, your ignorance is showing.

Weirdly, my youngest talked about this the other day in science. She's just 13. For context she is in a military boarding school in Scotland. I live in SW Scotland.

The topic was more a less what would happen if a nuclear war kicked off. Teacher said he wouldn't run anywhere as there is no point. My DD pipes up, well my mum has googled the blast zones so she'd come get me 🤣 theoretically as we are rural we would survive..... however that accounts in having enough notice to go get her!

My house is 200yrs old and has built in shutters, I specified to exdh they remain in tact for the zombie apocalypse.

Evacuate to where - some cavern deep underground?

In the event of a pending nuclear attack, I would hunker down at home with the pets and make like the dinosaur mummy.

Oh, goodness, you're right. Couldn't possibly squeeze into someone's spare room with your DC to escape a possible bombing, because there wouldn't be a home office! What was I thinking?

I don't think children would be evacuated alone due to time taken for DBS checks. Also more people can work from home so can move together. At the moment there are fewer children in London as it's too expensive for families to live there . There's big ethnic differences rather than class differences - most of the original working class Londoners moved out to essex

Not wanting to scare anyone, but there may be no notice to evacuate.

I do not think there will be a WW. Every country has too much to lose and could be devastated within minutes.

There's a lot of general turmoil at the moment with water companies etc and these earth quakes and volcano activity, so I think it's worth getting water and food/emergency supplies together anyway.