Jørgen Jensen (soldier)
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Featured article Template:Infobox military person Jørgen Christian Jensen Template:Postnominals (15 January 1891 – 31 May 1922) was a Danish-born Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces. Jensen emigrated to Australia in 1909, becoming a British subject at Adelaide, South Australia, in 1914. A sailor and labourer before World War I, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in March 1915, serving with the 10th Battalion during the latter stages of the Gallipoli campaign. After the Australian force withdrew to Egypt, Jensen was transferred to the newly formed 50th Battalion, and sailed for France with the unit in June 1916. On the Western Front, he was wounded during the battalion's first serious action, the Battle of Mouquet Farm in August, and only returned to his unit in late January 1917. On 2 April, his battalion attacked the Hindenburg Outpost Line at Noreuil, where his actions leading to the capture of over fifty German soldiers resulted in the award of the Victoria Cross.
In June 1917, the 50th Battalion was involved in the Battle of Messines; the following month, Jensen, now a corporal, was posted to a training unit in the United Kingdom. He returned to his battalion in October, and was promoted to temporary sergeant in November. In March 1918, the German spring offensive was launched, and Jensen fought with his battalion at Dernancourt and Villers-Bretonneux. Shortly after the fighting at Villers-Bretonneux, Jensen was on patrol when he received a severe head wound, and was evacuated to the United Kingdom, then repatriated to Australia, where he was discharged in Adelaide at the end of the war. He worked as a marine store dealer and married in 1921, but died the following year, having never fully recovered from his war wounds.
Early life
Jørgen Christian Jensen was born on 15 January 1891 in Løgstør, Denmark, the son of Jørgen Christian Jensen and Christiane Sørensen, who was apparently also known as Jensen.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Sørensen was a single mother who worked in agriculture. The younger Jensen's early life was difficult, but he was a good student, and entered the fishing industry.Template:Sfn In 1908, aged 17, he travelled to the United Kingdom before emigrating to Australia. He sailed to Melbourne in March 1909,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn then moved to Morgan, South Australia, and later Port Pirie, working respectively as a sailor on river steamers on the Murray River, and as a labourer. He was naturalised as a British subject in Adelaide on 7 September 1914.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
World War I
On 23 March 1915, Jensen enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) for service in World War I; he was allotted to the 6th reinforcements to the 10th Battalion.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His reinforcement draft embarked on HMAT Borda at Outer Harbor on 23 June, and joined the battalion at Gallipoli, Turkey, on 4 August.Template:Sfn By the time Jensen arrived, nearly half of the battalion had been evacuated sick with dysentery.Template:Sfn For the remainder of the Gallipoli campaign, the 10th Battalion rotated through various positions in the line defending the beachhead until withdrawn to Lemnos in November.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Jensen remained with his unit throughout, except for a week in September–October that he spent in hospital.Template:Sfn The battalion embarked for Egypt in late November and spent the next four months training and assisting in the defence of the Suez Canal. While in Egypt, the battalion was split into two, one half forming the nucleus of the new 50th Battalion, which was part of the 13th Brigade, 4th Division.Template:Sfn In April 1916, Jensen and several other 10th Battalion men were transferred to the 50th Battalion; later that month Jensen was charged for not being in his tent at tattoo.Template:Sfn On 5 June the battalion embarked for France, arriving in Marseille six days later. The unit then entrained for the Western Front, entering the trenches for the first time on 28 June near Fleurbaix.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The 50th Battalion saw its first serious action during the Battle of Mouquet Farm in mid-August 1916.Template:Sfn During the battle, the 50th Battalion suffered 414 casualties, largely from the heavy German artillery bombardment.Template:Sfn On 14 August, Jensen was hit in the left shoulder by a piece of shrapnel. He was evacuated to the UK and admitted to Graylingwell War Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex. While in the UK, he was charged with more disciplinary infractions in September, December and January, on one occasion being sentenced to 28 days field punishment for missing the troop train to return to France, and on another serving 12 days detention for being absent without leave.Template:Sfn He did not rejoin his unit until 28 January 1917.Template:Sfn
The 50th Battalion continued to rotate through front line, support and reserve positions, and underwent training in rear areas.Template:Sfn The battalion was also involved in pursuing the Germans as they withdrew to the Hindenburg Line of fortifications. On 2 April, the 13th Brigade attacked the Hindenburg Outpost Line at Noreuil.Template:Sfn The attack consisted of the 51st Battalion attacking the village from the north, and the 50th Battalion from the south.Template:Sfn During this assault, which was preceded by a weak artillery barrage, the 50th Battalion suffered extraordinary difficulties, and the centre company, to which Jensen belonged, was forced to detach a party of men equipped with a large number of hand grenades (then known as bombs) to deal with a strongly barricaded German post that was holding out between their company and the one on their right. Jensen was a member of this party.Template:Sfn His actions during the reduction of this post resulted in a recommendation for the Victoria Cross,Template:Sfn the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces at that time.Template:Sfn He was assisted in his actions by Private William Quinlan O'Connor and four others.Template:Sfn The recommendation read:Template:Sfn <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
At Noreuil on 2nd April 1917, this man took charge of five men and attacked a barricade behind which were 40/50 Germans with a machine gun. One of his men shot down the German gunner. Jensen who is a Dane, then rushed the whole post singlehanded and threw a bomb in. He had still a bomb in one hand and taking another from his pocket he drew the pin with his teeth. Threatening them with two bombs, he called on them in German to surrender and bluffed them that they were surrounded by Australians. The enemy dropped their rifles and gave in. Jensen then sent a German to tell another enemy party who were fighting our Stokes Gun to surrender and they too gave in. A different party of our men then saw these Germans for the first time and began firing on them. At considerable risk, Jensen stood up on the barricade, waved his helmet, and sent the German prisoners back to our line under an escort of lightly wounded men.{{#if:|
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During the assault on Noreuil, Jensen also freed Australian prisoners, and assisted in the "mopping-up" of German resistance in the village itself when he captured a German officer or non-commissioned officer, who pointed out which building the fire was coming from.Template:Sfn The 50th Battalion suffered 360 casualties, including 95 dead, and captured 70 Germans, nearly all of whom were taken by Jensen and his party.Template:Sfn O'Connor was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his part in capturing the German post.Template:Sfn On 4 April, Jensen was promoted to lance corporal.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His award of the Victoria Cross appeared in The London Gazette on 8 June,Template:Sfn by which time the 50th Battalion was involved in the Battle of Messines,Template:Sfn suffering 149 casualties.Template:Sfn After being relieved, the battalion continued its rotation through front line, support and reserve positions.Template:Sfn
In July 1917, Jensen was temporarily promoted to corporal and transferred to the 13th Training Battalion at Codford in the UK as an instructor. While there, he was entertained by Danish residents of Kingston upon Hull.Template:Sfn He was invested with his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 21 July.Template:Sfn After another disciplinary infringement, he returned to France, rejoining his battalion on 6 October. He was temporarily promoted to sergeant in early November, and the battalion spent the winter of 1917–18 rotating through the front line.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In late March 1918, the battalion left its rest area and, along with many other Australian units, was quickly deployed to meet the German spring offensive south of the River Ancre. On 5 April, the battalion took up positions at Dernancourt and there contributed to the defeat of the "largest German attack mounted against Australian troops during the war" during the Second Battle of Dernancourt.Template:Sfn
The fighting at Dernancourt was followed by a move to the Villers-Bretonneux sector, where, on 25 April, the battalion took part in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux that drove the Germans from that village,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn at a cost to the battalion of 254 casualties.Template:Sfn On 5 May, Jensen was on patrol near Villers-Bretonneux when he was shot in the head. Severely wounded, he was admitted to hospital in France, and on 18 May was evacuated to the UK, where he was admitted to the Richmond Military Hospital in Surrey.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Jensen reverted to the rank of corporal on being evacuated. Following two weeks' leave, he was repatriated to Australia, along with nine other Victoria Cross recipients, in August 1918 to take part in a recruiting campaign on the invitation of Prime Minister Billy Hughes.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He disembarked in Adelaide on 11 October, and was discharged from the AIF on 2 December.Template:Sfn He was assessed to be partially disabled, and received a small pension.Template:Sfn For his service during the war, as well as his Victoria Cross he was issued the 1914–15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.Template:Sfn
Post-war
After his discharge, Jensen worked for a short time as a barman in Truro,Template:Sfn then as a marine store dealer in Adelaide. He married Katy Herman (Template:Nee Arthur), a divorcée, at the Adelaide Registry Office on 13 July 1921.Template:Sfn Their marriage was heavily affected by his wartime experiences.Template:Sfn In April 1922, a photograph of Jensen and his horse-drawn cart, with "J. C. Jensen V.C." painted on the side, was published on the front page of The Sunday Times newspaper in Sydney; the caption noted that he employed several men in his business.Template:Sfn On 28 May 1922, Jensen was admitted to the Adelaide Hospital, and died of congestion of the lungs three days later, aged 31.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He had never fully recovered from the wounds he had received during the war.Template:Sfn
On 2 June 1922, Jensen's casket was carried on a horse-drawn gun carriage to the West Terrace Cemetery, followed by hundreds of former members of the 50th Battalion, and he was buried with full military honours in the AIF section of the cemetery. It was reported as "one of the most impressive funerals which have passed through the gates of the West Terrace Cemetery",Template:Sfn and "probably one of the largest military funerals ever held in Adelaide".Template:Sfn The pastor at the service said that Jensen was, "modest always... ever ready to enlarge on the bravery of others, without touching on his own accomplishments".Template:Sfn
Jensen's medal set, including his Victoria Cross, was donated by a family member to the Australian War Memorial in 1987 at a ceremony attended by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and is displayed in the Hall of Valour of the memorial.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 2006, a memorial to Jensen was unveiled in Løgstør by the Australian ambassador to Denmark, and a book about him was published in Denmark in the same year.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Each year, wreaths are placed at the memorial in memory of Jensen, and in 2014 a wreath was placed by the Australian ambassador, Damien Miller.Template:Sfn
Footnotes
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Websites
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