Thousands of UK children being evacuated out of harm's way were among some of the most evocative images of the Second World War.

Fears of intense aerial bombing prompted the authorities to arrange for the evacuation not just of city schoolchildren but also of mothers with pre-school offspring, as well as the blind and the disabled.

For most people, such a move was voluntary.

Some people made private arrangements, but many families chose to stay together and risk the bombing.

The early months of 1939 saw preparations being made for the mass evacuation of children and other people from vulnerable areas.

The affected areas in west Scotland included Glasgow and Clydebank. From May 1941, after the damaging Clydeside air raids by the Luftwaffe, Greenock, Port Glasgow and Dumbarton were added.

At 11.07am on August 31, 1939, the order came down to 'Evacuate Forthwith'. On September 1, 2 and 3 almost 120,000 youngsters left Glasgow.

In common with children in other parts of Scotland, they turned up at their local primary school, equipped with gas-mask, toothbrush, a change of underclothes, and a label. They made their way to the nearest railway station.

The Glasgow total could have been considerably larger.

The authorities had booked 338 trains to carry a planned-for 237,523 evacuees from Glasgow. In the event, only 118,333 turned up, 50% of the expected total. Thirty-five trains were cancelled.

In Edinburgh, the take-up was just 30%. In Clydebank, the number evacuated was about half that expected.

Unusual evacuation locations included Glen Nevis Youth Hostel at Fort William – the destination for 124 people from Glasgow's Blind Asylum – and Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, which hosted sick children from the Southern General Hospital.

All told, children and older people from Scotland's largest city found themselves in such places as Perthshire, Kintyre and Rothesay.

For many, the experience was liberating – for others, less so, as we will explore next week.

But at least they were out of harm's way.

The German bombers would not think to look for them there.

Glasgow's wartime evacuees