Episode 20: 21st August - 5th December, 1918

Nan Reay moves to No. 19 Casualty Clearing Station, at Boisleux-St.-Marc and then Caudry.

an eerie place where the days are long and the work in theatre very arduous. Another offensive or “push” means more casualties and Nan Reay is glad she is with a solid medical team because convoys are arriving continually, and they are all working at high pressure. 

A visit to the Somme battlefields brings back sad memories and a fruitless search for her fiancé’s grave. 

Nan hears that the Armistice has been signed. Although, the hospital is no longer receiving casualties, more tents are still being erected for the ‘flu cases.

Nan Reay’s diary ends on 5 December 1918.

Many of the Casualty Clearing Stations and Base Hospitals were still in operation until the middle to the end of 1919. Many were used to cope with the flu pandemic that was sweeping through Europe.

World War 1 Timeline for Episode 20

26 September 1918 Meuse-Argonne Offensive: After a short artillery bombardment, American and French troops advanced towards German positions in the Argonne Forest and along the Meuse River. This offensive played a major role in bringing about an end to the war.

October – 24 November 1918 Third Battle of Vittorio Veneto: Austro-Hungarian forces are severely defeated by the Italian Army, ending the war on the Italian Front and ushering in the final dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

9 November 1918 German Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and flees to Holland. German Republic (later the Weimar Republic) proclaimed.

11 November 1918 Germany is given 72 hours to agree to Allied demands and signs the armistice on 11.11.1919.The Supreme Allied Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch orders that all hostilities on the Western Front cease at 11 a.m. Paris time.

An estimated 1,500 nurses from a number of countries lost their lives during World War I. They died from disease, accidents or enemy action and at the end of the war, some succumbed to the flu.

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