Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
#4168  CASWELL Alfred  Frank  9th Infantry Battalion
 
Alf Caswell was born at Wallumbilla on 30th January 1895 to Francis and Mary Caswell. It is uncertain where he went to school as by the time Alf enlisted, his parents were living in Murgon.
 
Alf presented himself to the recruiting depot at Adelaide Street in Brisbane on 1st September 1915. He came with a note signed by both of his parents as he was then four months shy of his 21st birthday. Alf stated his occupation as photographer and advised that, like most young men of his age, had previous experience in the citizens forces.
 
Alf was accepted into a depot battalion at Enoggera to commence his training before being allocated to the 13th reinforcements for the 9th Battalion. After a period of home leave, Alf and the other 100 reinforcements under the leadership of two young lieutenants boarded the “Kyarra” in Brisbane on 3rd January 1916. The embarkation roll shows that Alf had allocated 3/- of his daily pay to his parents. Francis Caswell was named as Alf’s next of kin.
 
The Kyarra docked in the Egyptian Port of Alexandria on 19th February and the reinforcements were housed in a depot camp near Cairo. On 29th March, Alf boarded another transport ship in Alexandria for the voyage across the Mediterranean to the French Port of Marseilles; and from there to the large British training and transit camp at Etaples.
 
Alf spent some time in the hospital at Etaples suffering from mumps and he was not discharged to join his battalion until the 12th July 1916. During July, the 9th Battalion had been engaged in front line duty around Armentieres when the British launched the great Somme offensive. Casualties suffered by the new battalions of conscripts amounted to 60,000 on the first day alone, with little ground gained. The British Commander, General Douglas Haig, continued to order his corps commanders to press home the offensive and the 1st Australian Division, of which the 9th Battalion was part, was ordered south to take part in an attack on the village of Pozieres on 21st July. Alf could have been taken on by the 9th just before going into the line at Pozieres but wise heads perhaps decided that it might be best to keep such a green reinforcement out of the battle.
 
The 9th Battalion remained in the front line, having taken the village of Pozieres, until 26th July. Alf joined the battalion the next day when it was billeted at Berteaucourt. The 9th had suffered 462 casualties at Pozieres, of which 130 were killed or missing, and reinforcements such as Alf were badly needed to fill in the gaps.
 
The 9th Battalion continued to train while in the reserve positions behind the line. In early August, the 9th was called up again for an attack on a reinforced farmhouse just along the ridgeline from Pozieres. Casualties at Mouquet Farm were once more considerable. On 23 August, the entire 1st Division was relieved and travelled by train to the billet areas around Poperinghe in Belgian Flanders. Time was spent resting and reorganizing, interspersed with short periods manning the front line at the ramparts to the ancient city of Ypres and Hill 60 (which would be destroyed by underground mines fired by Australian tunnellers 8 months later). At the end of October, and the onset of winter, the 1st Division were sent back to the Somme. Alf was hospitalised at Fricourt with chilblains on 7th November and on 30th November was admitted to hospital suffering from influenza.
 
Alf spent the next three months in hospitals and rest camps, re-joining the 9th on 14th March 1917. The spring of 1917 produced some unusual developments on the Somme. During the previous winter, the Germans had secretly constructed a defensive line 150 kilometres long some distance behind the positions they held at the end of 1916. Once the defensive line, which the British called the Hindenburg Line, was completed, a measured withdrawal of forces began. The British, upon discovering that the enemy had decamped, followed slowly, fearful of sudden counter attacks and booby traps. When Alf rejoined the 9th, the 1st Division were approaching the Hindenburg defences around Lagnicourt. No serious attempt was made to breach the line there, unlike at Bullecourt where units of the 2nd and 4th Divisions received a severe mauling.
 
The Somme campaign was abandoned at the end of April but the battalions of the 1st Division remained in the rest and training areas around Albert as part of the British 5th Army.
A change in strategy by the British in 1917 moved the focus for operations to the Ypres salient in Belgium. The 3rd Battle of Ypres, sometimes referred to as Passchendaele began on 7th June, with battalions from the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions engaged in the battle of Messines. The next phase of the campaign was a series of smaller battles originating from the ramparts of Ypres and the 1st Division were moved north to Belgium to play its part in the coming offensives.
 
Alf was granted three week’s leave in the United Kingdom during the first weeks of September 1917. Upon his return to his battalion, the 9th was holding positions on Westhoek Ridge captured by troops of the Australian 2nd Division during the Battle of Menin Road. The war diary of the 9th Battalion records that while in the line at Westhoek Ridge, a “severe enemy shelling” occurred on 7th October 1917, resulting in a number of casualties. Among those listed as Killed in Action was Alf Caswell. He was 22 years old
 
There is no indication that Alf’s body was recovered and buried. In fact, it is most likely that he and the men sheltering with him in the outpost were obliterated or buried by the shell explosion. Alf’s parents at home in Murgon eventually received some personal items which included letters, postcards, photos, a wallet and purse, hair brush and a pair of damaged sunglasses. Service medals were distributed in 1922.
 
Alf Caswell is among the 54,000 men who lost their lives in Belgium during the conflict and have no known grave. They are commemorated on the tablets of the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres where each evening, the citizens of the city commemorate the sacrifice of those young men with a ceremony which concludes with the recitation of the Ode and playing of the Last Post.