before James became a viticulturist at Caversham in the Swan Valley wine region near Perth. He was also an enthusiastic cricketer in his younger years. After further unsuccessful attempts to join the AIF, he was eventually successful on 29 September 1916, after height requirements had been lowered. World War I 1916–1917 Following his enlistment as a private, Woods was allotted as a reinforcement to the 48th Battalion, a mixed South Australian-Western Australian unit, part of the 12th Brigade, 4th Division. It was already serving on the Western Front in France and Belgium. After two months training at Blackboy Hill, Woods embarked with the rest of his reinforcement draft on at Fremantle on 23 December 1916. He disembarked at Devonport in the UK on 16 February 1917, and joined the 12th Training Battalion at Codford on Salisbury Plain. During this training period, he was hospitalised with mumps and then with bronchitis and pneumonia. Recovered, he completed his training, embarked at Southampton for France, and joined the 48th Battalion on 12 September. At the time Woods joined the battalion, it was undergoing training and absorbing reinforcements in a rest area at Zuytpeene. On 21 September, the battalion was collected by buses and transported over several days via Steenvoorde to the vicinity of Ypres in Belgium. There the 12th Brigade relieved other units of the 4th Division that had participated in the Battle of Polygon Wood and took up support positions. During this period its main tasks were battlefield salvage and digging graves for recently killed Germans and Australians. Despite these non-combat tasks, the battalion suffered several casualties from German artillery fire. The 48th Battalion was relieved from these positions on 1 October, and occupied trenches at Westhoek Ridge overnight before returning to Steenvoorde. After a week at Steenvoorde, Woods' battalion marched to Abeele on 10 October, then entrained for Ypres. That evening it marched to trenches on Westhoek Ridge, where it received orders for a major attack by the division: the First Battle of Passchendaele, which was fought on 12 October. Despite initial success and the capture of more than 200 Germans, the main attack failed, leaving the left flank of the battalion exposed. The first German counterattack was beaten off, but with its left flank unprotected, the 48th Battalion was pushed back to its start line by a second counterattack. During the fighting, the unit suffered 370 casualties from its original