Albert Jacka
During the First World War, people from all over the world did things which required immense amounts of courage. Albert Jacka was an Australian who history records as one of the bravest warriors of the war. He was born in Victoria, Australia, in 1893. He was working for the Victoria State Forests Department when the First World War broke out in 1914 and Australia came to the aid of the British Empire.
Jacka joined the Australian Imperial Force in September 1914, beginning at the rank of private and later being assigned to the 14th Batallion, 4th Brigade, 1st Division of the Australian Army. When the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) entered the war in support of Germany, Jacka’s 1st Division was deployed to Egypt to protect the Suez Canal. The unit arrived in Egypt on January 31, 1915 and soon afterwards was merged with some New Zealand Brigades to form the body of soldiers known as the New Zealand and Australian Division.
In April 1915, the Allies launched their audacious offensive to storm the beaches of the Turkish coast around Gallipoli in an attempt to conquer the Ottoman capital Constantinople and so defeat the Ottoman Empire. It was a desperate gamble destined not to pay off and to result in the deaths of thousands of men. On April 26, the New Zealand and Australian Division launched a sea-borne invasion on the coast of the Dardanelles where it bravely fought the Turkish defenders on a narrow beach. Through heavy gunfire, they succeeded in establishing a bridge head and in building a series of trenches known as “Courtney’s Post”. It was here that Jacka was stationed.
When on May 19, 1915, Turkish forces launched an assault against the Australian and New Zealand line, they captured a section of Courtney’s Post which Jacka was defending. After the initial attack, Jacka waited for reinforcements to arrive and then charged the taken trenches with three others, all of whom were either killed or pinned down by enemy fire in the process.
Demonstrating an impressive ability to think strategically under immense pressure, Jacka then decided to organise a diversionary attack at the enemy’s flank while planning himself to hit the enemy from the rear. Jacka’s men bombarded the Turks with rifle fire and bombs as Jacka ran round to the enemy’s flank. Climbing out into No Man’s Land between the Allied and Turkish positions and jumping into the trench over its parapet, Jacaka single-handedly shot five Turkish soldiers and stabbed two others with his bayonet. The remaining enemy soldiers fled the trench and Jacka guarded the position alone until daylight, when he was relieved.
Jacka became the first Australian of the First World War to be awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Courtney’s Post and accordingly became a national hero. He was rapidly promoted through the ranks, from Corporal to Company Sergeant-Major. In April 1916, he finished officer training and received his commission as a second-lieutenant. He went on to perform further extremely heroic acts in the trenches of the Western Front in Northern France. On the morning of August 7, 1916, for example, after the Germans had launched a surprise assault, captured his section of the line, taken a number of Australian men prisoner and rolled bomb down into his dug-out, he led seven of his men out of a dug-out and charged the enemy against overwhelming odds. In the severe and bloody hand-to-hand fighting that followed, Jacka and his men killed and captured a large body of German soldiers and recaptured the section of the line. Though wounded in seven places, Jacka is recorded as personally having killed between twelve and twenty Germans during the engagement.
There were calls for Jacka to receive a second Victoria Cross medal for what he did at Pozieres but he never did. Some attribute this to snobbery among the higher ranks of the Commonwealth forces who may not have liked the idea of a “rough colonial” receiving such as prestigious award. Others say it’s because Jacka would never have had to fight his way through such a dangerous situation if he had ensured that there were enough sentries on duty to prevent the Germans from seizing the section of trenches in the first place. In any event, Jacka would have had to call upon immense courage to charge his way out of that dug out and his actions inevitably saved the lives of many men.
He ended the war with a Victoria Cross from Gallipoli and two Military Crosses for other feats of bravery, making him one of the most decorated Australian soldiers of the First World War.