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John's parents were John Edward Castree and Clara Nowland. John was living at Terrors Creek and working as a wheelwright when he enlisted in Brisbane on 24 May 1915. His unit embarked from Brisbane on board HMAT A55 Kyarra 16 August 1915. John was killed in action in September 1916 at Mouquet Farm near Pozieres. He died age 25.

CASTREE John Henry  #2565  15th Battalion
 
John Castree was born in Blackall to John and Clara Castree. By the time John enlisted on 24th May 1915 he and his parents were living in Nanango. John was working as a wheelwright and his younger brother, Claude, was a police constable in Nanango. The connection between John Castree and Terror’s Creek is difficult to ascertain. It is reported elsewhere that the Castree brothers were related to the Warland family of Terror’s Creek and certainly the two Warland boys who enlisted were also born in Blackall. This however does not explain the inclusion of John on the Dayboro Memorial but not include his brother Claude.
 
When John presented himself at the recruitment depot in Adelaide Street, Brisbane he named his father of Nanango as next of kin. He stated he was 24years and six months old and he was of bigger than average build for the time, being 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 161 pounds (73 kilograms). John was placed in a depot battalion at Enoggera for a short time before being assigned as a reinforcement for the 15th Battalion. Rather than embark in Brisbane for overseas, John travelled first to Adelaide where he boarded the “Kayarra” on 16th August 1915.
 
There are no records of John’s arrival in Egypt but he probably spent some time in a training camp before boarding a ship for Lemnos on the island of Mudros. Lemnos was the logistical base for the Gallipoli Campaign and John joined the 15th Battalion there on 23rd October 1915. The 7th and 8th reinforcements were placed in isolation due to an outbreak of mumps. On 2nd November, the reinforced battalion were back on ANZAC engaged in fatigue duties.
 
The onset of Autumn had brought severe storms to the peninsula. Trenches were flooded out and later in the month, it snowed. While the weather deteriorated, Kitchener had decided to abandon the whole Mediterranean campaign. He visited ANZAC for a few brief hours and sacked Sir Ian Hamilton, the commander of the force. Plans were drawn up for the evacuation of Gallipoli, with a gradual draw down of troop numbers.
 
On 13th December, the entire 15th Battalion was evacuated at night back to Lemnos and by Christmas Day was back in Egypt. From the middle of January until early March 1916, John was in hospital and convalescent depots with a succession of complaints involving his ears, nose and throat. While John had been in hospital the 15th Battalion was split to form the nucleus of a reinforced 15th battalion and a newly created 47th Battalion. Since John had very little front line experience, it was perhaps wise to keep him in the 15th. John spent three months in Egypt after his discharge from hospital and did not embark for France via Marseilles until the first week of June 1916.
 
The 1st July marked the beginning of Gen Douglas Haig’s grand offensive in the Somme. Things did not go well with enormous casualties expended for very little territorial gain. The main reason for the failures in the Somme campaign were simple. The Germans had held defensive positions virtually in the same position since 1914. Theirs was to be a defensive war, aimed at holding the ground gained. For the British, any advances would require attacking these defences. The British tactic was to throw huge numbers of infantry against the defences in the hope that sheer numbers would cause a capitulation. When this tactic did not survive the first day, the decision was to simply try the same tactic on subsequent days; a classic case of “if you keep on doing what you have always done, you will keep on getting what you always got,” in this case mounting casualties.
 
The newly arrived Australian divisions were spared the initial days of the battle, primarily because the British were of the view that these newly arrived units were an unknown quantity. By the middle of July with the battle of the Somme now six weeks old, Haig finally decided that he needed fresh divisions and the Australians (four divisions in total) would provide the necessary manpower. During July and August, the 1st, 2nd and 4th Divisions would be hurled against the Pozieres Ridge and the stronghold of Mouquet Farm.
 
The 15th Battalion, as part of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Division was in the line from the 6th August, holding the newly won trench lines at Pozieres. Many of the survivor of Pozieres described the artillery barrages as the worst they experienced during the course of the entire war. This would have been a truly frightening experience for John Castree as it was his first taste of combat. He was fortunate to survive unscathed. After manning the front for a week, the 15th was withdrawn to the Brickfields Camp where they began brigade exercises for the forthcoming attacks on Mouquet Farm.
 
The farm was heavily fortified by extending the cellars and creating a line of three defensive trenches. The farm was depicted on the maps as “La Ferme du Mouquet” but the Australians referred to it as “Moo Cow Farm” or “Mucky Farm.”
The assault on the farm began at midnight on the 3rd/4th September 1916. It was conducted on an ever-narrowing front that was enfiladed by German artillery and machine guns on three sides. The ground was so churned up that advancing troops could not recognise a trench line when they reached it. Attempts to dig new trenches were unsuccessful due to the loose ground caving in.
 
British Commanders continued to throw successive brigades of Australian Infantry into the assaults on Mouquet Farm. On 27th September it was the turn of the 4th Brigade and the 15th Battalion would advance with a British unit on their left flank. It had been raining for a week and the mud was calf deep in the shallow trenches. When the 15th leapt out of the jumping off trench, most of the rifles and Lewis guns were clogged with mud and were inoperable. The unit on the left had failed to keep abreast of the 15th in the advance and rather than have the battalion exposed, the commander Lt Col Cannan ordered a withdrawal. The brigade would make a further assault on the farm three days later, with the 15th battalion responsible for digging an assembly trench behind the front line. The farm was taken but again had to be abandoned due to constant artillery barrages which prevented supplies getting up to the new position. The 15th Battalion remained in support at Mouquet Farm for a few more days before being withdrawn permanently from the battle.
 
When battalion roll calls were conducted, the casualties suffered became apparent. The battles of Pozieres and Mouquet Farm would cost the three divisions involved a total of 23,000 casualties (killed, wounded, prisoner and missing). One of the missing was John Castree. He was listed as Missing in Action but a subsequent court of inquiry determined that he had been killed in action, on or about 1st September. His remains were never found.
 
Evidence given as a result of an inquiry by the Red Cross by a sergeant in John’s company stated that John’s body had been retrieved from the battlefield by the Canadians and that his papers and pay book had been sent to Battalion HQ. Given that a Court of Inquiry was convened to establish John’s fate, the statement about the Canadians is probably mistaken.
 
John’s parents received his few personal effects and three campaign medals; the 14/14 Star, Victory medal and Empire medal.
 
At war’s end, the Australian Government determined to construct a lasting memorial to the more than 10,000 Australians who had lost their lives in France and had no known grave. The sight was to be on a hill just north of Villers Bretonneux across the Somme from Pozieres. Due to issues with design and lack of funds, the Australian National Memorial was not unveiled until 1938 by the newly crowned King George VI and his eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth. The memorial would be the site of further conflict in 1940 during the German invasion of France during WWII. The scars of this conflict can be still seen on the limestone structures today.