TODAY marks the centenary of Geelong Victoria Cross winner Albert Jacka’s heroic seizing of a Turkish trench at Gallipoli.
Jacka shot five Turks and bayoneted two in an assault that brought Australia’s its first Victoria Cross of the Great War and propelled him to national fame.
Early on 19 May 1915, the Turks launched a massive counter-attack along practically the entire Anzac line, rushing Courtney’s Post about 4am. They captured an 11-metre section of trench guarded by Jacka amid frenzied fighting.
For several minutes, Jacka fired warning shots into the trench wall until reinforcements arrived and, after shouting his instructions, he and three others sprang out into the trench.
All but Jacka were immediately hit so he leapt back into the communication trench. A new plan was devised. Two bombs were lobbed at the Turks while Jacka skirted around to attack from the flank.
“Amid the smoke and the noise he clambered over the parapet, shot five Turks and bayoneted two as the rest hastily retreated,” the Australian Dictionary of Biography records.
“ ‘I managed to get the beggars, Sir,’ he reputedly told the first officer to appear. For this action he received the Victoria Cross, the first to be awarded to the AIF in World War I.”
Jacka went on to win two more awards for gallantry in France, a Military Cross and bar, but his action have long been deemed worthy of three Victoria Crosses.
Last month, on the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day, his family called for a review of his medal count, backed by local MPs Richard Marles and Sarah Henderson, Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons and Torquay RSL sub-branch president Ian Gilbank.
Contemporary VC winner Ben Roberts-Smith, cited for bravery in Afghanistan, also recently said anyone who knew anything about World War I knew that Jacka should have been awarded two more Victoria Crosses.
Australia’s official WWI correspondent/historian CEW Bean wrote the same in his records.
