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Lance-Corporal Albert Jacka

Unit: 14th Battalion, 4th Australian Brigade, New Zealand and Australian Division
Action: 19-20 May 1915, Courtney's Post, Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey
At 3am on 19 May, the Turkish forces attacked the Anzacs. The Australian forces repelled the Turks, except at Courtney's Post where the ground favoured the Turks.
About 4am, the Turkish soldiers entered part of Courtney's trenches, forcing the Anzacs to withdraw. The Turkish soldiers were blocked to the south by soldiers of the 14 Battalion, and to the north by Lance-Corporal Albert Jacka, 22.
Lieutenant Keith Crabbe asked Jacka if he could retake the trench. The attempt he made failed, and resulted in two of the three men who joined Jacka being injured in the counter-attack. A second attempt was made, with Crabbe creating a diversion while Jacka worked his way around the Turks' flank.

Jacka entered the trench, shot five men and bayoneted two others. Jacka's first words to Crabbe were ``I managed to get the beggars, Sir''.
Biography: Jacka, who was awarded the first Australian Victoria Cross of the war, is regarded as one of our greatest soldiers. The official historian C.E.W. Bean wrote: ``Everyone who knows the facts, knows that Jacka earned the Victoria Cross three times''.
Jacka was born at Winchelsea, Victoria on 10 January 1893. He worked on his father's farm after school before finding a job with the Victorian State Forests Department. He enlisted at the outbreak of the war and landed at Gallipoli on 26 April 1915.

After receiving the VC, his likeness was used on recruiting posters. After being commissioned at Pozieres, in August 1916, Jacka was awarded the Military Cross for what Bean called ``the most dramatic and effective act of individual audacity in the history of the AIF''.
Finding himself caught 250m behind enemy lines, he attacked a group of German soldiers escorting 40 Australian prisoners. He was wounded three times in the action in which most of the Australian soldiers were freed and the Germans captured.

He was awarded a bar to his Military Cross for his actions at Bullecourt on 8 April 1917 in which Jacka carried out a dangerous night reconnaissance of the enemy's position, breaking through the wire in two places before reporting back.
He went out again to lay tapes in preparation for the 4th Division's attack of the Hindenburg line, and captured two Germans.

A few months later, at Messines, he led his company in capturing a field gun. In Polygon Wood, Jacka was praised for his role in rallying the troops. In May 1918 he was badly gassed and evacuated to England. A member of his Battalion wrote: ``He deserved the Victoria Cross as thoroughly at Pozieres, Bullecourt and at Ypres as at Gallipoli . . . The whole AIF came to look on him as a rock of strength that never failed. We of the 14th Battalion never ceased to be thrilled when we heard of ourselves referred to . . . by passing units on the march as `some of Jacka's mob'.''

His actions came at a personal cost -- during his convalescence in London, he suffered months of debilitating nervous reactions in which slight noises would cause him to shake extremely. He also clashed with senior officers, with his fiery temperament seen as holding him back from further promotion.

He returned to Melbourne in October 1919 to a public reception at Melbourne Town Hall, went into business, importing electrical goods the following year with two former Diggers and then married and adopted a daughter. His business collapsed in the Great Depression but he was elected to the St Kilda Council and served as its mayor.
He died aged 39 on 17 January 1932 of chronic nephritis as a result of his war injuries, and is buried in St Kilda Cemetery. Eight recipients of the VC were pallbearers. A house was purchased for his wife from public donations.