Anders Lassen
| Anders Lassen | |
|---|---|
Anders Frederik Emil Victor Schau Lassen
|
|
| Born |
22 September 1920 Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Died | 9 April 1945 (aged 24) Lake Comacchio, Italy |
| Buried at | Argenta Gap War Cemetery |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1940–1945 |
| Rank | Major |
| Commands held |
No. 62 Commando Special Boat Service, Special Air Service |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |
Victoria Cross Military Cross & Two Bars |
| Relations | Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst (cousin) |
Anders Frederik Emil Victor Schau Lassen, VC, MC & Two Bars (22 September 1920 – 9 April 1945) was a highly decorated Danish soldier who was the only non-Commonwealth recipient of the British Victoria Cross in the Second World War. He was posthumously awarded the United Kingdom's highest gallantry award for his actions during Operation Roast on 8 April 1945 at Lake Comacchio in Italy in the final weeks of the Italian Campaign.
The Danish officer was ordered to lead a raid that would give the impression that a major landing was being undertaken. Lassen fulfilled his mission in the face of overwhelming enemy numbers by single-handedly taking out three enemy positions before being mortally wounded. As his men's lives would be endangered in the withdrawal, he refused to be evacuated from the area.
Anders Lassen was the son of Emil Victor Schau Lassen and Suzanne Maria Signe Lassen, of Nyhavn, Copenhagen. He was a first cousin of Axel von dem Bussche, a German Resistance member who unsuccessfully tried to kill Adolf Hitler in 1943. While serving in the Danish Merchant Navy, he came to the United Kingdom shortly after the start of the Second World War where he joined the British Commandos in 1940, serving with No. 62 Commando (also known as the Small Scale Raiding Force) as a private. He was commissioned in the field on the General List and awarded an immediate Military Cross for his part in Operation Postmaster the capture of three Italian and German ships from the neutral Spanish colonial island of Fernando Po now known as Bioko, in the Gulf of Guinea.
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