WW2 evacuees: everything you wanted to know

Welcome to the History Extra podcast. Fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine. Imagine being torn from your home and sent to live with strangers. To escape the threat of bombing in British cities, Thousands of people were sent to the countryside.

And they weren't just children. Historian Joshua Levine joins Lauren Good to revisit the experiences of evacuees in today's episode. Including those of his own father. Josh, thanks so much for joining me for an episode of our Everything You Wanted To Know series. Today we'll be talking all about the history of evacuees in Britain. First of all, during which period of the Second World War were children evacuated? Evacuations actually started two days ago.

before the war that's how much it was anticipated. The bombing of Britain had taken place during the First World War. On a much bigger scale than people sometimes realise. So if you walk through London, you'll see damage to buildings and damage to Cleopatra's Needle, for example, on the Thames, which people often assume is second world war blitz damage. It isn't first World War damage. And people were sheltering in the tubes in the First World War. So people already knew That's what it was like to be bombed. And

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