What was the scale of the first wave of evacuation?

• A. 2.5 million
• B. 500,000
• C. 1 million
• D. 1.5 million

Answer: (C)

The main thing being tested is the scale of the initial evacuation move in Britain’s civilian evacuation during the outbreak of war. When the government ordered people to move out of cities to safer rural areas, the first push saw a huge number of people packed off in a short period. The figure most often cited for this initial wave is about one million, which shows how quickly and broadly the evacuation was able to be organized right at the start of the crisis.

Why this fits best: it captures the rapid, large-scale nature of the first phase—much larger than a half-million, but not so large as to describe later, cumulative totals that include subsequent waves or broader groups. The other numbers refer to different measures or later stages, so they don’t match the immediate first wave as closely as the roughly one-million figure.

If you come across slight variations in sources, remember that the key idea remains: the first evacuation was massive and happened quickly, roughly around a million people.