Even before War with Germany was accredited, the British government felt that it was necessary to shield the civilian inhabitants, especially children; pregnant mothers, disabled people and teachers accompanied them. The government decided to evacuate children from the major cities into rural areas. They had many reasons for doing this, each of them mainly linked to fear of civilian casualties.

As it was the Germans themselves who began civilian bombings, the British government did have reason to believe that they would adopt this tactic again. It started off in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. It was market day in the Spanish city of Guernica, and the Germans bombed the city for over three hours. The Germans chose this city as their target on that particular day because they knew that their bombings would kill the most people as it was the busiest day of the week.

`At least...