Following his VC action, Jacka instantly became a national hero; he received the £500 and gold watch that the prominent Melbourne business and sporting identity, John Wren, had promised to the first Australian of the war to receive the VC, his image was used on recruiting posters and magazine covers, and he received rapid promotions; first to corporal on 28 August, to sergeant two weeks later on 12 September, and then to company sergeant major on 14 November. He became company sergeant major of C Company, and saw much fighting at Gallipoli where, during August at Chunuk Bair, Hill 971, and Hill 60, his battalion took part in an Allied offensive aimed at trying to break the deadlock around the beachhead. After nine months of fighting and 26,111 Australian casualties, the Allied forces began to evacuate the peninsula in December 1915, after which Jacka's battalion was withdrawn to Egypt.