Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John served in the 15th Battalion (15th Reinforcement) during the First World War. Private Green, a coal worker from Tannymorel, was one of very few Australians to survive the first Battle of Bullecourt on 11 April 1917.
Soldier's life saved in the blink of an eye.
In the blink of an eye, John Herbert Green went from facing certain death at Australia's infamous "blood tub" to being one of the luckiest Diggers to emerge from the First World War. John, an Australian Imperial Forces private was one of the few soldiers to survive the first Battle of Bullecourt on 11 April 1917.
In just a few hours, the Germans slaughtered over 2300 of Green's comrades and took a further 1170 prisoners of war as the Australians tried to breakthrough the Hindenburg line near the village of Bullecourt in France.
The enemy shot Green in both legs. Determined to survive, the 23-year-old coal worker crawled across the body-strewn battlefield, trying to get his comrades to pull him into their trenches.
But the soldiers battened down the hatches, turning their back on the young man for fear he would draw the attention of the enemy. Eventually he collapsed and the Australians, believing him dead, left his body where he fell.
Twenty-four hours later, a group of Canadian soldiers stumbled across him.
He mustered enough strength to blink his eyes to get their attention and he was a saved.
John Herbert Green was born in Dalby on 29 November 1892. He was the son of Francis Bernard Green (1855-1918) and Elizabeth Tyrell (1857-1943).
John was living in Tannymorel and working as a coal miner there when he enlisted for WW1 in Toowoomba on 10 September 1915. He was assigned service No. 4799 with the 15th Infantry Battalion. John’s unit embarked from Pinkenba in Brisbane, on board HMAT Commonwealth A73 on 28 March 1916.
His service records do not show if or when he spent time in a military training camp in Egypt or England. The first reference to his movements overseas, shows that he proceeded overseas on 30 September 1916 and was taken on strength in Entaples, France on 19 October 1916. The battalion spent the remainder of the year of 1916 in the Ypres salient, around St Eloi and Boorlartbeek, before winter fell on the Western Front. It was the worst winter in Europe in 40 years, and the men suffered heavily from sickness and the cold as they rotated through the line, conducting defensive duties and labouring before moving to Gueudecourt, and then later Lagnicourt, in the new year.
As winter passed, in an effort to shorten their lines and move into prepared positions, the Germans fell back towards the Hindenburg Line. After the Allies advanced to follow up the withdrawal, the battalion fought its first major battle of 1917 in early April, around Bullecourt, where the units attacked as a complete formation for the first time since Gallipoli. Committed without the protection of an artillery barrage, expecting tank support to win the day, the units suffered heavy casualties; on the first night, the tanks broke down and on the second, they had proven unable to breach the enemy defences, leaving the infantry to force their way through. After less than 10 hours of fighting, 2,339 soldiers lay dead or wounded, out of 3,000 committed, including 400 from the 15th Battalion; by the end of the attack, only 52 men from the battalion's assault force remained uninjured. They were subsequently withdrawn from the line back to farmland around the village of Doulien where the battalion was rebuilt, eventually reaching a strength of 719 personnel of all ranks.
On 2 May 1917, John was repatriated back to England where he received treatment for the gunshot wounds he’d received. John was finally returned to Australia on 8 December 1918.
John married Flora Arolf Smith in Dalby on 21 September 1920. It was a double wedding with Flora’s sister Tessie marrying John Moy. John and Flora went on to have six children during their marriage. John took up a farm at Gunnewin via Roma before then retiring to Nambour. It was here that John died on 7 January 1965, at the age of 72, and was buried there.
John has descendants in the Warwick, Dalby, Caboolture, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba regions. His brothers Francis Green and James Green also served in WWI.