33rd BATTALION AIF
Private: 1841 Stanley Ellis HONEY. M.M.
Born: 1897. Boggabilla via Warialda, New South Wales, Australia. Birth Cert:27055/1897.
Married: 1922. Queensland, Australia.
Wife: Gwendoline Sappho Walker Honey. nee: Scrider. (1900-1976)
Died: 1st of September 1983. Brisbane, Queensland.
Father: William Henry Honey. (1862-1912)
Mother: Mary Ann Honey. nee: Roberts. (1861-1930)
INFORMATION
No.1841 Stanley Ellis HONEY was the youngest of three brothers to enlist in the AIF. He was an 18 year old labourer from Delungra in NSW when he enlisted at Narrabri on the 28th of March 1916. The following day he was sent to the Armidale Depot Camp to commence his basic training. On the 6th of May 1916 he was transferred to the Rutherford Depot Camp, where he was allocated to the 2nd Reinforcements of the 33rd Battalion AIF.
He embarked from Australia on the 4th of September 1916 aboard the HMAT (A15) ‘Port Sydney’, departing its namesake and arriving at Plymouth in England on the 29th of October. On arrival the reinforcements travelled by train to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, via Exeter, where they then marched into the 9th Training-Battalion at Durrington. They then commenced training in all the latest methods of trench warfare.
On the 4th of February 1917 he finally deployed from England across to France, marching in the 3rd Australian Division Base Depot at Etaples. On the 6th of February he marched out to the front in a group of 21 Reinforcements and was taken-on-strength by the 33rd Battalion AIF (New England’s Own / The Northern Battalion) on the 8th of February. He was 1 of 6 men posted into “B” Company.
The 33rd Battalion was one of the four Infantry Battalions to comprise the 9th Australian Infantry Brigade (33rd, 34th, 35th, and 36th Infantry Battalions, 9th Machine-Gun Company, and the 9th Light Trench Mortar Battery), of the 3rd Australian Division (9th, 10th, and 11th Infantry Brigades).
He was with the Battalion for the attack on ‘MESSINES’ on the 7th of June, when the battle commenced at 3:10 a.m. with the detonation of 19 huge mines that had been dug under key strategic German positions along the ridge.
On the 8th of October 1917, 33rd Battalion Routine-Order No.383 recorded that he was now posted for duty in “B” Company as a Regimental Stretcher-Bearer.
He was with the 33rd Battalion for the attempted attack on 'PASSCHENDAELE' in Belgium on the 12th of October 1917. Unfortunately the ancient field-drainage systems at Passchendaele had been previously destroyed by shelling and the Artillery fire on Passchendaele combined with the current heavy rainfall now turned and churned those same flooded fields into a muddy quagmire. The attacking troops were expected to advance 2,500 yards (2.2 km) over wet and muddy shell torn ground, Battalions advancing through Battalions (leapfrogging) after each objective was captured (i.e. objectives being: RED LINE, BLUE LINE, and then GREEN LINE). This distance twice exceeded what would normally be expected for an objective, even in good conditions.
The attack commenced at 5.25 a.m. on the 12th and by the end of the day the 3rd Australian Division had sustained approximately 2,935 casualties (of which 299 were killed) and after being forced to withdraw from the BLUE LINE, finally held a line only just in front of that mornings starting point. It was reported that men had sunk into the liquid mud in the shell holes under the weight of their own equipment and drowned. If a man became stuck it took several of his comrades to extricate him, and it needed a team of stretcher-bearers to bring just one man back to the dressing-Stations, and the wounded were certainly plentiful. Each Battalion employed 32 Stretcher-Bearers. Somehow Stanley came through this physically unwounded.
He was granted Paris-Leave commencing on the 6th of December and undoubtedly enjoyed the Sights, Sounds, and Pleasures of that City - rejoining the Battalion on the 16th. On the 28th of December 1917 he reported sick and was admitted to hospital in France, diagnosed with V.D. He rejoined the 33rd Battalion on the 23rd of February 1918, after 37 days of medical treatment and subsequent ‘loss of pay’.
In late March of 1918 the 9th Infantry Brigade was rushed south to ‘the Somme’, in response to a huge new German Offensive (known by the Germans as Operation Michael), and used as a mobile formation being thrown into the line wherever strengthening was needed.
He was with the Battalion for the “1ST BATTLE OF VILLERS-BRETONNEUX” on the 4th and 5th of April 1918, when the 9th Australian Brigade, and a few tired elements of the British 5th Army, were instrumental in stopping the German advance towards the key City of Amiens. His heroic actions as a Stretcher-Bearer during this Battle had been observed and noted, and he was nominated for a Bravery Award.
The 9th Brigade successfully held the front line to the east of the village and defended the village for the next two weeks. The 33rd Battalion was given the task of defending the village itself and was billeted in its cellars. On the 17th the Germans commenced to directly shell the village itself with a combination of H.E. and Mustard Gas. The Australian Army Historian, C.E.BEAN, later estimated that approximately 12,000 artillery shells had been fired at the village over the 17th and 18th…..with the 33rd Battalion having to wear their gas-masks continually. On the 18th of April, Stanley was one of the vast majority of the Battalion who were reported as WOUNDED-IN-ACTION by Poison-Gas. He was admitted to the 55th Field-Ambulance, and then transferred to the 5th Casualty Clearing Station. He was then transferred and admitted to the 16th General Hospital at Le Treport and on the 30th of April he was transferred to the 1st Australian Convalescent Depot at Havre.
On the 7th of May he marched into the 3rd Australian Division Base Depot, marching back out to the front on the 13th, and rejoining the 33rd Battalion on the 16th. On the 15th of May the 33rd Battalion Routine-Orders had recorded that he had been awarded the MILITARY MEDAL for his actions during the ‘1st Battle of Villers-Bretonneux’.
On the 4th of September 1918, on the ‘Somme’ near Suzanne in France, he was again WOUNDED-IN-ACTION, suffering a wound to his left leg. He was invalided to England the following day and was admitted to the Military Hospital at Edmonton. On the 18th of September he was transferred to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford. He was still at the hospital when the Armistice was signed on the 11th of November 1918.
On the 9th of April 1919 he was finally discharged to the No.2 Command-Depot at Weymouth, and then commenced his return voyage to Australia on the 3rd of May 1919, arriving back in Sydney on the 22nd of June. He was discharged from the AIF on the 30th of July, as ‘Medically Unfit’.
He died in Queensland on the 1st of September 1983, and is commemorated on a plaque in the Queensland ‘Garden of Remembrance’ situated within the Pinnaroo Lawn Cemetery at Bridgeman Downs, Brisbane.
(Bill Durant: October 2019)
Family Information
Stanley was a single 18 year old Labourer from Delungra, N.S.W. upon enlistment with the AIF. After returning to Australia he moved to Queensland where he married Gwendoline Sappho Walker Scrider in 1922. In 1976 they lived at Sandgate North, Lilley, Queensland, Australia.
Delungra Public School Roll of Honour
Delungra Honour Board, Delungra Bowling Club.
William Henry Honey. (1862-1912)
Mary Ann Honey. nee: Roberts. (1861-1930)
Military Records
Under Construction: 02/10/2019.
11 Aug 1931
