War - Ww1 Vc - Victoria - Albert Jacka, Vc, Mc And Bar Poem by Paul Warren

Albert Jacka was a Victorian and a true blue
Who enlisted before Gallipoli as the 1st AIF grew
When the Great War was declared he was a forester
Who worked in the tall trees of Australia in Victoria.

He was assigned to the 14th Battalion,4th Brigade of the 1st Division main
And went to Egypt to train before the Dardanelles campaign
He was at The Landing on the terrible day
When 2,000 Australians lives were taken away

On the night of 19-20 May 1915 at Courtney's Post
The Turks attacked when they were trying to break to the coast
Lance Corporal Jacka alone stood hardy killing seven Turks
And was awarded Australia's first Great War VC in these works

He was made a sergeant then was commissioned as a lieutenant
To the Western Front in 1916 to the battles in the trenches was not fluent
He went through the attack on Pozieres where the fighting was bloody
And he won his first Military Cross again whilst standing hardy

In early 1917 the Germans retired to the Hindenburg Line
And Jacka as intelligence officer went forward for information to find
Who during this time captured a German Patrol single handed to make
A bar to his Military Cross a further award that was lauded

At the end of the War in May 1918 at the Villiers Bretonneux fight
He was gassed and wounded and surviving was not a question so light
So back to England again to a fight for his life in a Hospital stay
There was a time when it was thought that his life would ebb away

But he survived and back to a hero's welcome in Melbourne town
And went into business with other returned soldiers he found
But the Depression hit the business hard and it fell apart
With the only work for him as Mayor of St Kilda in his heart

But the war wasn't finished with him yet
And his health meant that a long life he did not get
On 17 January 1932 at Caulfield Military Hospital
He died and was buried with 8 VCs as pallbearers all.

So another brave Australian passed into history's tale
With a shortened life from the war as it did gale
Captain Albert Jacka was a credit to us all
Who won that war for us after hearing our call.

© Paul Warren Poetry