Does Java volatile variables impose a happens-before relationship before it is read?

I have a piece of code which looks like this:

_{Snippet A:}

class Creature {
    private static long numCreated;
    public Creature() {
        synchronized (Creature.class) {
            numCreated++;
        }
    }
    public static long numCreated() {
        return numCreated;
    }
}

From my understanding, since reading of numCreated is not synchronized, if Thread-A creates a Creature at 1pm, and Thread-B reads numCreated() at 2pm, numCreated() may well have returned either 0 or 1 (even when Thread-A has finished initializing the object at 1.05pm).

So I added synchronized to numCreated():

_{Snippet B}:

class Creature {
    private static long numCreated;
    public Creature() {
        synchronized (Creature.class) {
            numCreated++;
        }
    }
    public static synchronized long numCreated() { // add "synchronized"
        return numCreated;
    }
}

and all's well, except that I was thinking, if I modify it to Snippet C, is the variable numCreated still synchronized properly?

_{Snippet C:}

class Creature {
    private static volatile long numCreated; // add "volatile"
    public Creature() {
        synchronized (Creature.class) {
            numCreated++;
        }
    }
    public static long numCreated() { // remove "synchronized"
        return numCreated;
    }
}

With Snippet C, is it guaranteed that as soon as Thread-A completes object creation at 1:05pm, Thread-B's call to numCreated() is sure to return 1 ?

_{PS: I understand that in a real situation I would probably use an AtomicLong but this is for learning purposes}