
Anders Lassen was born on 22 September 1920 in Copenhagen. Following Germany’s invasion of Denmark in 1940 he came to Britain.
He joined the Commandos and was quickly commissioned and awarded a Military Cross. Anders served in North-West Europe, North Africa, Crete, the Aegean islands, mainland Greece, Yugoslavia and Italy. His unit was absorbed into the Special Air Service in February 1944 and by October Lassen had been promoted to Major and awarded two bars to the Military Cross.
He was part of small but high-impact amphibious operations at Lake Comacchio by Commandos just before the Argenta Gap offensive to prepare the way and confuse the Germans. In one of these on the night of 8-9 April 1945, Major Anders Lassen was killed and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions.
The London Gazette of 4th September, 1945, gives the following particulars: In Italy, on the night of 8th/9th April, 1945, Major Lassen was ordered to take out a patrol and raid the north shore of Lake Comacchio. His task was to cause casualties, capture prisoners and give the impression of a major landing. The patrol was challenged and came under machine-gun fire. Major Lassen himself attacked with grenades and silenced two enemy posts, capturing two prisoners and killing several Germans. The patrol had suffered casualties and was still under fire. Major Lassen moved forward and flung more grenades into a third enemy position, calling upon the enemy to surrender. He was then hit and mortally wounded, but whilst falling he flung a grenade, wounding more of the enemy and enabling his patrol to capture this last position. Finally, he refused to be evacuated lest he should impede the withdrawal and endanger further lives. His high sense of devotion to duty and the esteem in which he was held by the men he led, added to his own magnificent courage, enabled Major Lassen to carry out with complete success all the tasks he had been given.
Major Lassen was eventually buried in Argenta Gap War Cemetery. His headstone has the Victoria Cross carved upon it, above the words chosen by his family, taken from a Danish hymn:
KAEMP FOR ALT
HVAD DU HAR KAERT
DO OM SAA DET GAELDER
DA ER LIVET EJ SAA SVAERT
DODEN IKKE HELLER
Which can be translated as:
Fight for all,
that is dear to you
Even if you must die
Then life is not so hard
Nor is death so hard
