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. Early life and background Anders Lassen was born on the Høvdingsgård estate near Mern, Vordingborg Municipality, the son of estate owners Emil Victor Schau Lassen and Suzanne Maria Signe Lassen. Lassen's paternal grandfather A. F. J. C. Lassen, made his fortune as the owner of a tobacco plantation on Sumatra. In 1917, Lassen's father took over the Høvdingsgård estate. Lassen was a first cousin of Axel von dem Bussche, a German Resistance member who unsuccessfully tried to kill Adolf Hitler in 1943. Military career While serving in Denmark's 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). The unit was formed around a small group of commandos under the command of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). 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. In early 1943, No. 62 Commando was disbanded, and its members were dispersed amongst other formations. Lassen was among a number who went to the Middle East to serve in the Special Boat Section, then attached to the Special Air Service. Others joined the 2nd SAS under the command of Bill Stirling (1911-1983), elder brother of David Stirling. During his time in the SBS, Lassen rose in rank to become a Major by