Episode 10: 21st to 25th October, 1914

Shampoos, luncheons, baths and some unexpected visitors. The desire to write about normal things seizes Nan Reay in these diary entries. She chats to French children and their mothers on her excursions from the camp and never misses an opportunity to practise her schoolgirl French for which she received an honours prize at Tintern Grammar in Melbourne.

Nan Reay stuck postcards of the town of Pornichet in her diary alongside these dates.

World War 1 Timeline for Episode 10

The First Battle of Ypres(19 October-22 November 1914) was a significant battle because the Allied and German troops were unable to outflank each other and it marked the onset of trench warfare. 

The battles listed below give a sense of the escalation of the war at this point. There were many battles along the Western Front, called a “Race to the Sea’’, as the French, British and Belgian armies tried to outflank the German army and block them from the ports of Calais, Le Havre and Dunkirk.

For further information go to: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/battles/index.htm#racetothesea

Battles in the autumn of 1914 during this period of mobile fighting were:

• the First Battle of Picardy (22-26 September 1914)
• the First Battle of Albert (22-25 September 1914)
• the First Battle of Artois, (27 September - 10 October 1914)
• the Battle of La Bassée (10 October - 2 November 1914)
• the First Battle of Arras (1 October - 4 October 1914)
• the First Battle of Messines (12 October - 2 November 1914)
• the Battle of Armentières (13 October - 2 November 1914)
• the Battle of the Yser (16 October - 10 November)
• the First Battle of Ypres (19 October - 22 November 1914)
• the Battle of Langemarck (21 October - 24 October 1914)
• the Battle of Gheluvelt (29 October - 31 October 1914)
• the Battle of Nonneboschen (11 November - 22 November 1914)

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