Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Blaschek RIP

Kyt · Nov 6, 2007

Leader of Gurkhas during the bitter fighting in Burma

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2820195.ece

Charles Blaschek won his first Military Cross in the bitter, close-quarter Imphal-Kohima battles of April 1944, when the Japanese 15th Army fought to frustrate General Sir William Slim's 14th Army's planned offensive into Burma. As second-in-command of a company of 3rd Battalion 1st Gurkha Rifles, he was sent to take over a detached position at Sita in the hills southeast of Imphal. He found the position ill-sited and overlooked. A Japanese bombardment began in the early hours of the first night, followed by suicidal infantry assaults.

The initiative and courage of one of Blaschek's platoon commanders, Havildar (Sergeant) Minbahadur Rana, who went forward to attack an enemy wire-breaching party with grenades, led to the main point of the attack being detected in time and thrown back. In his dispatch, Blaschek gave Minbahadur — who was killed — full credit for the position's being held, but he himself had inspired the defenders throughout by his fortitude under intense pressure.

He distinguished himself again on several occasions while in command of a company of 3/1st Gurkhas in the advance southwards, and was mentioned in dispatches.

In September 1945, after the Japanese surrender, 3/1st Gurkha Rifles went with Major-General Douglas Gracey's 20th Indian Division to French Indo-China to disarm Japanese units there and try to contain the fast-spreading Vietminh communist revolt. The former task proved easier than the second, leading to the surrendered but well-disciplined Japanese units being used as guards. Serious clashes with the Vietminh occurred in and around Saigon. On October 4, Blaschek's company was holding a position to cover an intensive search for insurgents in the suburb of Gia Dinh when he was attacked by a Vietminh force in superior strength.

He led a vigorous counter-attack that threw the enemy back and killed 28 of them, but one Gurkha rifleman was left wounded beyond a bridge central to the action. Blasheck commandeered a car and drove it over the bridge to bring the wounded man to safety, being wounded in the chest in the process. He received the immediate award of a Bar to his MC.

After the Partition of the sub-continent in 1947 he transferred to British service with the Royal Berkshire Regiment, concluding his career as the military attaché with the British Embassy in Bucharest in 1971.

He is survived by his wife and daughter.

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Blaschek, MC and Bar, Burma veteran, was born on February 16, 1922. He died on October 20, 2007, aged 85
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