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 Changing threat perceptions during the interwar years led to the development of a more extensive Swedish civil preparedness structure. This study examines the emergence, organisation and planned local translation of Swedish civil evacuation planning between 1936 and 1944 by focusing on how large-scale civilian evacuation was constituted as a civil defence measure before and during the Second World War. The study is based on a qualitative historical policy analysis of how central state planning principles were translated into local planning. Uddevalla, Sweden, is used as a case to examine how these principles were adapted to geographical, military, and administrative conditions.Through the analysis of legal and administrative documentation and archival material primarily from institutions such as the Air Protection Inspectorate (Luftskyddsinspektionen) and the National Evacuation Commission (Statens utrymningskommission), the study demonstrates how the planning process rested upon assumptions regarding future aerial warfare in which civilian populations could become direct targets of strategic bombing. Conceptions of a possible future war, shaped by earlier experiences and expectations of future aerial warfare, thus influenced threat assessments, organisational structures, geographical prioritisations, and protective measures.The study also demonstrates how Swedish evacuation planning was characterised by a strong planning rationality, whereby the state sought to create administrative oversight and operational capacity through centralised systems, classifications and bureaucratic coordination. Meanwhile, the case study of Uddevalla illustrates how central intentions were translated into local planning shaped by local conditions, military priorities and organisational limitations. The findings therefore show that the planned local translation of Swedish evacuation policy did not constitute a fully uniform process but required central directives to be adapted to regional and local circumstances.The study contributes to the field of Swedish civil defence research by directing attention towards evacuation as a protective measure, an area that has largely remained overshadowed by research focusing on air raid shelters and the social and administrative dimensions of Swedish civil defence during the period 1936–1944.