Evacuation of the Gibraltarian civilian population during World War II

The evacuation of the Gibraltarian civilian population during World War II was an event which dramatically changed the lives of Gibraltarians. The British Government's decision to enforce mass evacuation from the then Crown colony of Gibraltar, in order to increase the strength of The Rock with more British Armed Forces personnel, meant that most Gibraltarians (some for up to ten years) had nowhere to call home. Only those civilians with essential jobs were allowed to stay. However, this event gave the entire community a heightened sense of "Britishness" by sharing in the war effort.

In early June 1940, about 13,500 evacuees were shipped to Casablanca in French Morocco. However, following the capitulation of the French to the Germans in June 1940, the new Pro-German French Vichy Government found the presence of Gibraltarian evacuees in Casablanca an embarrassment and sought an opportunity to remove them. That opportunity soon arose when 15 British cargo ships arrived under Commodore Crichton; they were repatriating 15,000 French servicemen who had been evacuated from Dunkirk. Once the rescued servicemen had disembarked, the ships were interned until they agreed to take away all the evacuees. Although Crichton was unable to obtain permission to clean and restock his ships (and contrary to British Admiralty orders which forbade the taking on of evacuees), when he saw the mass of civilians pouring through the dockyards, he opened up his gangways for boarding. Just recently, (on 3 July 1940), the British fleet had destroyed a number of French warships at Mers el-Kebir, in order to prevent them being handed over to the Germans. The attacks killed thousands of French sailors and led to high tension between the British and the French, which was evident when Gibraltarian families were forced at bayonet point by French troops to board, taking only what they could carry, leaving many possessions behind.

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