Family joy as 500,000 evacuees to return
ABOUT 500,000 evacuees are to return to London. It is expected that the first batch of mothers with children will arrive a month from today, and t he first unaccompanied children in six weeks.
In the main, evacuees will travel home in special trains or reserved coaches. Free travel vouchers for independent travel will be issued only to those who cannot be included in organised parties.
A census of all evacuees will first be taken to find out how many have homes to come back to — reports
Three million people were moved to safety
suggest that as many as two million houses could have been destroyed in the blitz.
About three million people have been evacuated to rural locations beyond the reach of German air attacks. It was the biggest and most concentrated movement of people in british history.
The evacuees i nclude pregnant women and school teachers, but the majority of them are children and, for that reason, the operation was codenamed Pied Piper.
Local billeting officers were appointed to find suitable homes for evacuees and they rigorously interviewed possible hosts. Following selection, a host was compelled to take an evacuee; in return, hosts could expect to receive payment via the Post Office.
I t proved i mpossible to evacuate all the children, however, and thousands have been killed in raids by German bombers. Some estimates put the number as high as one in ten. Imagine how many more innocent victims of Hitler’s rage would have died had the evacuation not taken place.
Some perished while taking cover from bombs in Anderson shelters in their own gardens.
Even buried in the ground covered with earth, the shel- ters, of which there have been nearly three million erected, could not withstand a direct hit, although they offered protection f rom shrapnel, splinters and ground shock.
Now that the Nazi terror is defeated, public and communal air- raid shelters are to be closed within days, and some will be demolished.
People who were given free Anderson shelters and Morrison shelters ( for use inside the home) may buy them on terms obtainable from the local authority.
Those who wish to get rid of them will have to keep them until arrangements can be made to collect them. They can be dismantled but the parts should be stored as they are Government property.