The above group photo is of the staff - The Western Front Association

encountered on th e Guiseley Memorial.
Finally Grant Smith presented a DVD
which held the reminiscences of a local
WW1 veteran.
Kemmel Hill Revisited: November
2011 (32 attended)
Kemmel Hill, at over 150m, is the
highest point in the Ypres Salient and
affords commanding views. It was taken
on 25 April 1918 by the Germans during
the Battle
of the Lys,
and
recaptured
by the
Allies in
September
1918. Jon
Honeysett
gave us an
account of
the
involvement of his father - Charles
Edward Honeysett - as an infantryman at
Kemmel Hill using extracts from the
shorthand battlefield diary his father had
kept - against regulations - during the
war. He also used recordings from an
interview with his father in 1980.
Charles was born in 1899, and we
heard of his Edwardian childhood in
Croydon and his willing enlistment at
Wimbledon Common in April 1917, on his
18 th birthday. Charles spoke favourably of
his training, including battle training on
Salisbury Plain.
A spell of leave at Thornton Heath was
disturbed when the German Spring
Offensive in 1918 led to Charles
receiving a telegram on 27 March 1918;
he was to report for embarkation to the
Continent. Thus it was that in early April
1918 Charles found himself being
inspected by General Plumer - who it
seems was well liked by the men - before
28
being moved by motor lorry on 10 April to
Kemmel in response to the German
attack in the Salient the previous day. On
11 April Charles was in waterlogged
trenches on Messines Ridge, and soon
came underfire.
We heard fascinating audio
recollections about his chit chat with his
comrades about their prospects; the
experience of being under artillery
barrage and machine gun fire; rest
periods with his colleagues in the Royal
Irish Fusiliers, with whom he felt at home
and who were in fact quite a mixed
nationality bunch - including a fellow from
Ceylon; and the emergence of a 'working
class’ consciousness amongst the men.
Messines Ridge and Passchendaele -
taken by the allies in 1917 at such huge
cost - fell; the allied defensive front
shortened; and on 11 April Haig issued
his ’Backs to the Wall’ message. The
French and British on Kemmel Hill -
including Charles on 13 and 14 April -
came under intense bombardment,
including gas and aeroplane attack, and
eventually the steadfast resistance of the
- mainly French - defenders weakened,
Kemmel Hill falling into the hands of the
German 56 division on 25 April, at heavy
cost to both sides. Charles’ unit sustained
heavy losses. The German advance
beyond Kemmel faltered and was
stopped on 29 April.
By then Charles had reported sick on
22 April with a foot wound and a skin
condition, and was hospitalised in
Boulogne until June, returning on light
duties in early July, only to be
reprimanded for impertinence to an
officer. He rejoined his battalion on 23
July, and was very glad to meet up with
the newly arrived US troops, who began
shelling Kemmel Hill. In an audio extract
Charles also spoke highly of the
Australians, South Africans and the