Figure 1.--

Here is the report I found in the Blackburn Times newspaper achieve (September to December 1944). The Blackburn Times was the town’s weekly newspaper. Blackburn is an industrial town in northwest Lancashire (northern England). It was thought to be a safe place when the Germans after D-Day launched the V-weapon campaign (June 1944) . While it was an industruial city, it was relatively small and located far enough north it was beyond the range of the V-weapons. I thought it might be of interest as your section on the evacuations does not have much information on what happened at the reception points. Here is what I found:

Numbers

Between June 17 and September 2, 1944 the Lancashire town of Blackburn in the northwest of England accommodated over 3,500 evacuees. They did not come all at once but in several groups of about 700 evacuees. They arrived by rail at the main train station.

Preparations

The arrangements had been organised by Father Forrestall of St. Anne’s Church. He had previously organised other groups who came to the town. He went to London to collect the evacuees and travelled back to Blackburn with them. While the train travelled north the evacuees were put in groups for the rest centres they would go to.

Arrivals

In the edition of September 2nd 1944 it reported the latest arrivals that came during the last week of August. The special train from London brought 695 evacuees. They were expected and the Blackburn council had made plans to place them. Unfortunately more arrived than were expected. Despite this aplaces were found for all the evacuees over the weekend. The train arrived Friday afternoon. On board were the following groups of evacuees: 85 unaccompanied children, 231 mothers and their children, and 4 grandmothers. Some families had between 5–7 children. It was thought that 13 families would be in this group and properties had been found to house them. Unfortunately there were more than 13 large families. On the Saturday a further 4 houses had been found so that these families could be kept together.

Transport

The evacuees of course arrived by rail. Transport on was by bus. A fleet of corporation [municicipal] buses were at the railway station awaiting the train that Friday afternoon to take them to their respective reception centres. There were 8 centres which received the evacuees. The centres were where the evacuees would be assigned their billets. The centres were: the Queen’s Hall rest centre for the large families, rest centre at the Y.W.C.A was for unaccompanied children. The remainder of the party were divided up and taken to the following rest centres: Bent Street Ragged School, Harwood Street and Alton Street Methodist Schools, St Frances Hall, St Georges Presbyterian School, and St Anne’s Church Hall. At each centre the evacuees were provided a meal. Medical examinations took place at the centres to make sure everyone was healthy. Bath facilities were available. All this took place Friday evening and Saturday morning.

Billets

Billets were quickly found for almost everyone but 34 remained for placements after the first day. It was Sunday evening before the final evacuees had their billets. The officials overseeing the billet arrangements were the Deputy Town Clerk. Mr. Broughton and the town’s Inspector Taylor who was the chief billeting officer. In the report to the town’s emergency committee some of the evacuees were difficult to billet but places were found for them. Since the V-weaopon emergency. the town provided billets for over 3,000 evacuees. The report said that before the arrival of the latest party there were no places for mothers and children but Blackburn people opened their homes and the report put on record the council’s thanks for the generosity of the people of Blackburn in finding places for the evacuees. Emergency measures had been put in place should there be further evacuations from London. However while most people had offered accommodation there were others who would not take in evacuees. There were measures in place to make it compulsory under this situation. It was reported that evacuees were reluctant to take up a placement with such families and would return to London. cHowever the situation did not get any worse so such action was not needed. If the situation became very serious, the Blackburn authorities planned to close the schools so the buildings and teachers could assist in the crisis. This never happened.

Events

Later in September a concert was held in King George’s Hall all for the evacuees. The Mayor and Mayoress attended the concert. It was a very successful show. The children were taken on a tour of Roe Lee Mill. This was also a successful visit. One of the children wrote a letter to the Blackburn Times expressing delight at seeing how cloth was made and thanked the people of Blackburn for their friendly hospitality.

Soldier Thanks

There was another letter from a soldier who came to Blackburn to spend his leave with his family. He was very grateful to the family who looked after his wife and 2 children as well as 6 other young girls. Hey also found him accommodation in their home while he was on leave.

Returning Home

In the edition of the Blackburn Times (September 15), there was a report stating that of 3,500 evacuees, 150 had volunteered to return to London after the V-1 attacks had ceased. By this rime with the liberation of France, the Allies had overrun most of the launch sites. The figurers for those returning to London from June to September were 464. There were 61 families that had also decided to return to London. The report said that most evacuees had settled into the situation and were awaiting the official all clear.

Final Attacks

Just as the V-1 attacks largely ceased, the Germans began the V-2 attacks. The German had planned masive attacks, but their planned launch sites along the coast were damaged by bombing raids and overrun. And the production and deployment of the V-2s were adversely affected by the strategic bombing campaign. Given the underground assembly facilities, however, production could not be entirely stopped. The Germans developed mobile launch vehicles. Thus London was again under assault. The V-2 weapons were a technological marvel, but only a delivered a miniscule small fraction of the bombs being dropped on Germany by the Allies. They were devestating when they hit, but had no impact on the British war effort. They could not be aimed beyond a city and even here the British deception campaign caused them to miss whole cities, even London which was a huge target. The Blackburn Times reported (December 29) that a V1 bomb had exploded in the north of England. This was a rare event. The expanding Allied bombing campaign could not hit the underground construction sites, but the bombing gradually destroyed the transportatiin site and thus the number of V-2s launches gradually fell. The last V-2 hit England (March 27, 1945). By this time the Allies had crossed the Rhine and driving into the heart of the Reich.

Created: 12:09 AM 5/9/2018
Last updated: 12:09 AM 5/9/2018