Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

"THE LATE PTE. CHARLES HONWAY.

Mrs. Honway, of Walkerville, received a telegram from the military authorities on Wednesday that her son Charles died from wounds received in France on July 24. He was 25 years of age. Born in Walkerville, he had resided there nearly all his life. Before enlisting he was employed at the salt works, Kangaroo Island. Mrs. Honway is a widow." - from the Adelaide Register 31 AUg 1916 (nla.gov.au)

From Francois Somme

Pte 2786 Charles James Honway
12th Australian Infantry Battalion,
3rd Brigade, 1st Australian Division of the AIF
 
On the fields of the Somme, silent and bathed in light, stand solemn and immaculate thousands of white graves, the final resting places of tens of thousands of young men who, on these sacred grounds, alongside their comrades, fought with exceptional bravery and who, in the name of peace and freedom, for the greatest causes volunteered and who, under the bullets, under the implacable brutality of war, stood with honor and made their country proud and, while they were in the prime of their lives, they followed their brothers over the top, united in brotherhood and marched forward in that sacred spirit of camaraderie which gave them the strength to stand and fight their fates in the face of machine gun fire but their sacrifices were not in vain because today we live thanks to them and have the privilege of standing with respect in front of them to express our gratitude to them on these same sacred grounds on which they fought and fell and where, in silence, always watching over each other, they rest in peace knowing that their memory is kept strong and alive and that they are remembered with the love and respect they deserve by the people of France who owe them so much and that I will always be there to watch over them so that their memory lives on forever.

Today, it is with the deepest gratitude and with the utmost respect that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men,of one of my boys of the Somme who gave his today for our tomorrow. I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 2786 Charles James Honway who fought in the 12th Australian Infantry Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who died of his wounds 107 years ago, on July 24, 1916 at the age of 25 during the Battle of the Somme.

Charles James Honway was born on December 4, 1890 in Adelaide, South Australia, and was the son of Michael and Catherine Honway, of Church Terrace, Walkerville, South Australia, and worked as a labourer at the salt works, Kangaroo Island until the outbreak of the war.

Charles enlisted on July 1, 1915 in Keswick, South Australia, in the 12th Australian Infantry Battalion, 9th Reinforcement under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Lancelot Clarke and after a training period of just over two months, he embarked with his unit from Adelaide, on board HMAT A15 Star Of England on September 21, 1915 and sailed for Greece.

On November 27, 1915, Charles arrived in Greece and was disembarked at Mudros where he was taken on strength then embarked on board "Lake Michigan" for Egypt and arrived in Alexandria on January 6, 1916. Here, he followed a short period of training with his unit then joined the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) and proceeded overseas for France on March 29.

On April 5, 1916, Charles finally arrived in France and was disembarked in Marseilles but the same day, he hesitated to obey an order and on April 11, was sanctioned with two days in field prison then on April 14, joined the 12th Battalion in Strazeele (Hauts-De-France).A week later, on April 21, they marched to Sailly-Sur-La-Lys, in Pas-De-Calais, and after receiving reinforcements, followed a period of training. Here, on April 25, for ANZAC Day, they were reviewed by General Herbert Plumer and then by General Sir Douglas Haig the next day. At this time, the strength of the 12th Battalion consisted of 24 officers and 954 other ranks.

On June 7, 1916, Charles and the 12th Battalion left Sailly-Sur-La-Lys and joined the front line at Petillon, near Fleurbaix, an area called "nursery" because it was a calm sector of the front but which allowed the Diggers to acclimatize to the conditions of trench warfare on the western front. However, they suffered from the enemy artillery which pounded the positions of the 12th Battalion then were relieved by the 54th Australian Infantry Battalion on July 2 and moved to Outtersteene where they followed a period of exercises including bayonet fights and musketry.
On the 9th July 1916 the 12th Battalion marched to Meteren and then to Godewaersvelde from where they embarked by train for the Somme and arrived at Doullens on the 11th July. From there they marched through Halloy-lès-Pernois, reached Naours the next day and had a short training period there and then on the 16th July moved to Rubempre and to Albert on the 19th July. By this time it was clear that a major battle was on the horizon and on July 20 entered the trenches of the "Sausage Valley" and on July 22 received orders to stand by and join jumping trenches for what was to become the deadliest battle for the AIF on the Somme front, synonymous with infernal hell never seen before and brutality, the Battle of Pozieres.

After the slaughter of Fromelles, where the Australian 5th Division had been critically weakened in a failed "feint", the main British attack on the Somme awaited an Australian contribution. The British attack had gotten off to a bad start. The artillery bombardment before the infantry attack didn't do the damage the British generals had hoped for, so casualties on the British side were extremely heavy. About 20,000 died on the first day, with many more wounded. But the British, committed to trying to take pressure off the French,who had been suffering horrendous losses from German artillery at Verdun,weren't ready to give up.

Australia’s turn to participate in the costly exercise came in the area around the village of Pozieres, on July 23, 1916. This time three Australian divisions,the 1st, 2nd and 4th,were under the ultimate command of the British general Hubert Gough, a commander with a reputation for poor preparation. Pozieres was chosen as an objective because it occupied a high point and commanded views of the surrounding country. The British hoped that taking Pozieres would enable them to roll back the German lines. The British Fourth Army had made four unsuccessful attempts on the village before the Australians were sent in, and the village had been completely pulverized by artillery fire.
A British bombardment preceded the infantry attacks, as usual, and the Australians who charged the featureless rubble-pile that was once a village managed to secure it, with some difficulty. But because their success was isolated, the new occupants of the village became the focus of severe German counter-attacks and an artillery barrage of extreme ferocity.

At Pozieres the Australians endured the worst bombardment they encountered in the entire war, and the casualties were tremendous. Official Australian war historian Charles Bean, who witnessed the action at close quarters and considered himself lucky to escape with his life, likened the battle to a "ghastly giant mincing machine". The men, he wrote:
"have to stay there while shell after huge shell descends with a shriek close beside them,each one an acute mental torture,each shrieking tearing crash bringing a promise to each man,instantaneous,I will tear you into ghastly wounds, I will render your flesh and pulp an arm or a leg, fling you half a gaping quivering man (like those that you see smashed around you one by one) to lie there rotting and blackening like all the things you saw by the awful roads, or in that sick ening dusty crater."

In the fighting around Pozières the 1st Australian Division lost 7700 men, the 2nd Australian Division had 8100 casualties and the 4th Australian Division lost 7100 men. Joe Maxwell’s platoon, as an example, went from 60 men to four. In his book, he described witnessing the bombardment from behind the lines:
"Rolling, brownish-black smoke-clouds eddied and swirled around us. The acrid tang of explosive hung heavy in the air. It was ripped again and again by the quick yellow and red flash of bursting shrapnel. Higher and higher rose the thunder of the guns, the plumes of yellow multiplied, the smoke swirled faster, and the reek of explosives fell like the stench of death. Could anyone survive in this vast open-air slaughterhouse? Into the flailing wind of steel we stumbled. Men flopped into holes and dropped on the slopes of ridges merging with the grey-brown of the soil."

Unfortunately, it was during the second day of the battle of Pozières that Charles met his fate and was seriously wounded, then was immediately evacuated and admitted to the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station in Puchevillers where, despite the care he received, he died a few hours later at the age of 25.

Today, Charles James Honway rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Puchevillers British Cemetery, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "Father, unto thee do we commend his spirit."

Charles, in the prime of your life, it was with a heart full of determination and hope that you took a step forward to carry the colors of Australia overseas high and proud and that for your country, for those who were dear to you, you answered without fail and without fear the call of duty and proud to belong to a generation of heroes, you joined the ranks of the Australian Imperial Force, young men who, together, decided to do what was right and, after a last look at their motherland under the sun, after a last embrace in the loving and warm arms of their sisters, their mothers and their wives, they carried high their slouch hats of which they were so proud, as if to say "we will be back soon" and on board liners, slow steamers, they sailed carrying in their hearts the hopes of a great adventure but had the heavy hearts seeing the country they loved so much disappear behind them through the foam and the fog then, supported by the camaraderie of their friends, they looked straight ahead with resolution and seriousness because they knew that the war awaited them, that terrible suffering would welcome them on the battlefields but side by side, they felt proud to come to the aid of France, a country they knew little but which they adopted and loved with tenderness and for which they were ready to fight and give their lives.After a peaceful journey, ultimate moments of peace and silence, they arrived on the coasts of our beautiful country and walked towards the fields of the Somme where they discovered the beauty of the apple trees in blossom, the roads strewn with poppies and saw on their roads the first French children who greeted the young Diggers with deep affection and whom they saw as heroes with such gentle faces, some went to say hello to them in hesitant English and in return the soldiers Australians, moved and proud to be welcomed with so much compassion and love, hugged them, it was there, in these solemn moments that the Franco-Australian friendship was born then with faith and confidence, they joined the wet and dark trenches under the fire of the artillery and saw the brutality, the horrors of the war through their innocent eyes but far from being frightened, they went forward and took position behind the parapets illuminated by duel cannons that spat death and fire from both sides of the front line in a mournful, murderous symphony of shells that exploded in terrible blasts against which nothing could survive.In the deep, sticky mud they lived long months which became years during which blood never ceased to rain and with exceptional bravery our Australian brothers in arms held every meter of French soil, every position with determination but thousands of them never returned home, and at Pozieres, under shrapnel and poison gas, in fury and madness, driven forward by a sacred bond of brotherhood, they went over the top and faced the machine guns but after a few meters traveled in a smell of gunpowder, dirt, metal and smoke, thousands of them were decimated but for those who managed to break through the enemy lines, another hell began and through the howls of rage and agony, friends and foes fell on each other in furious hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, rifle butts, helmets and pickaxes until silence returns and survivors see piles of dead bodies behind them.

In the barbed wire, their friends were caught and without escape routes, they were riddled with lead. In the holes of shells of water and stagnant and nauseous blood, they saw their brothers, their fathers who lay lifeless and without noise. They saw disembowelled horses which, alongside their masters, had given their lives.It was in this world that a whole generation of men gave their lives and among them, in the Somme, fell more than 30,000 young Australian soldiers who, alongside their friends and French brothers in arms, rest in peace side by side behind the rows of their white graves on which their stories and their memory are remembered and honored and here, in Amiens, Villers-Bretonneux and Pozieres, they will always be loved as our sons over whom I will always watch over with respect and love so that they are never forgotten, so that the ANZAC spirit lives on forever, but also to keep alive and perpetuate the friendship which unites Australia and France, two brother countries forever linked in remembrance, by a common history which we are so proud to share with the Australian families that we will always be honored to welcome on these sacred fields that their ancestors defended at the cost of their lives and to which we will be forever grateful.

Thank you so much Charles, for all that you and all your comrades have done for us and for my country and whose gratitude, respect, admiration and love will always be yours.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him, we will remember them.