Another factor that has to be considered in assessing World War II is the number of displaced children and children who lost one or both parents. A variety of
factors are involved here. Many London and other city children were sent to live with family and strangers in rural areas that the Germans did not target during the
Blitz and subsequent bombing. Some were sent to America and Canada, but this was stopped after some of the ships were torpedoed by U-boats and after the
Battle of Britain it was clear that German invasion was not emmenent. Another factor were the civilian casualties. The horrendous casulties in World War I were
virtually all male combatents. Substantial numbers of civilians were killed in the Blitz and later V-1 and V-2 attacks and huge numbers of homes destroyed. This was
quite different than World War I because of the bombing of English cities resulted in substantial civilian casulties. One Londoner tells that after a V-2 hit a crowded
London Wollsworth in 1944 that the neighbor children came by to say that "mummy hasn't come home yet". Many of these children were taken care of my surviving
parents or families, but many had to be institutionalized. We have not yet assessed the impact of the World War II displacement on clothing. The transport of orphans and other indigent children to Australia and other Empire countries appears to have been suspended because of the U-boat attacks, but after the war they weere resumed.
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