Borella accepted a job as a cook for a survey party in Tennant Creek and in January 1915 he set out for Darwin to volunteer for active service.

He did not rejoin his unit until 5 February 1916, and then served on the Western Front in France, being wounded in the Battle of Pozières Heights on 29 July.

[6] Borella received a Military Medal for conspicuous bravery on 11 May 1917,[7] was Mentioned in Despatches on 1 June 1917,[8] awarded the Victoria Cross on 16 September 1918 for actions in July 1918 during a peaceful penetration operation prior to the start of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive.

His citation for the Victoria Cross, gained in 1918 in Villers-Bretonneux, France, at the age of 37, reads in part: During the period 17/18 July...

He then led his party, by now reduced to 10 men and two Lewis guns, against a very strongly held trench, using his revolver and later a rifle with great effect and causing many casualties.

Two large dug-outs were also bombed and 30 prisoners taken....[11]He received his VC at Sandringham from King George V.[12] Three of Borella's brothers also served during the war: Charles and James in the 7th Battalion, and Rex in the 8th Light Horse.

[1][2] After being demobilised, Borella moved to Albury, New South Wales, working there as a public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Supply and Shipping, serving in the role of inspector of dangerous cargoes until he retired in 1956.

[16] On 3 February 2015, Borella's Victoria Cross was escorted to the Parliament House of the Northern Territory in an armed convoy.

[17] The VC and its accompanying medal group, and a Luger pistol brought home by Borella from the Western Front, remained on public display in the Parliament House for two months.

[19] On 10–11 November 2016, the documentary Albert Borella VC – an Incredible Journey, aired on Channel 9 in the Northern Territory and nationally on 9Now.