Namdeo Jadav

He rescued comrades and silenced three posts near the Senio.

Namdeo Jadav, also recorded as Namdeo Jadhao and Jadhav, earned the Victoria Cross with the 1st Battalion, 5th Mahratta Light Infantry during the Italian campaign of the Second World War. Born in November 1921 in the Ahmednagar district of India, he grew up in a farming family and tended cattle before enlisting in November 1941.

On 9 April 1945, while serving as a company runner at the River Senio near San Potito, he accompanied an assault across the river. Fire from German positions struck the party as it emerged on the far bank. Jadav carried two wounded men back through the water, up the steep bank and through a mine belt. He then returned to attack the enemy positions. After a wound prevented him from using his firearm, he continued with grenades, silencing three posts in all. Standing exposed above the river, he called the remaining troops forward. His actions helped secure the crossing and a deeper bridgehead.

King George VI presented his Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 20 July 1945. Jadav continued serving after Indian independence, became a havildar and retired in March 1960 with the honorary rank of naib subadar. His later decorations included the Param Vishisht Seva Medal. He and his wife, Draupadabai, had a daughter. He died in August 1984 and was cremated at Pune.

Official Victoria Cross citation

In Italy, on the evening of the 9th April, 1945, a Company of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry assaulted the east floodbank of the Senio river, north of S. Polito. Three minutes afterwards another Company was to pass through and assault the west floodbank.

In this sector the Senio river is about 15 feet broad, 4 to 5 feet deep and flows between precipitous floodbanks 30 to 35 feet high. Both floodbanks were honeycombed with an intricate system of German dugouts and defence posts, with a mine belt on the inner face of the east floodbank above the dugout entrances.

Sepoy Namdeo Jadhao was a Company runner and when his Company crossed the river he was with his Company Commander close behind one of the leading sections.

When wading the river and emerging on the west bank the party came under heavy fire from at least three German posts on the inner face of the east bank. The Company commander and two men were wounded and the rest, with the exception of Sepoy Namdeo Jadhao, were killed.

This gallant Sepoy immediately carried one of the wounded men through the deep water and up the precipitous slope of the bank through the mine belt to safety. He then made a second trip to bring back the other wounded man. Both times he was under heavy mortar and machine gun fire.

He then determined to eliminate the machine gun posts, which had pinned down the Companies, and to avenge his dead comrades, so, crossing the exposed east bank a third time, he dashed at the nearest enemy post and silenced it with his Tommy Gun. He was, however, wounded in the hand and, being unable to fire his gun any further, threw it away and resorted to grenades. With these he successively charged and wiped out two more enemy posts, at one time crawling to the top of the bank to replenish his stock of grenades from his comrades on the reverse slope.

Having silenced all machine gun fire from the east bank, he then climbed on to the top of it and, in spite of heavy mortar fire, stood in the open shouting the Mahratta war cry and waving the remainder of the Companies across the river.

This Sepoy not only saved the lives of his comrades, but his outstanding gallantry and personal bravery enabled the two Companies to hold the river banks firmly, and eventually the Battalion to secure a deeper bridgehead, which in turn ultimately led to the collapse of all German resistance in the area.