Special Forces Hero (Hardback)

Book review available at: https://thomasharder.dk/en/special-forces-hero-reviewed-lars-baerentzen-athens-review-books

Thomas Harder

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Highlight: 'Major Anders Lassen won the Victoria Cross and the Military Cross (with two bars) for his courage during the Second World War, dying aged 24 on a special forces operation in Italy in April 1945 while displaying heroism that genuinely defies belief. In Special Forces Hero: Anders Lassen VC MC (Pen & Sword) Thomas Harder writes about his short life with sensitivity and insight.'

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Thomas Harder

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Centre for Maritime Historical Studies, University of Exeter

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Kathimerini Newspaper

Special Forces Hero is a magisterial account of a young heroic Dane at war. His story deserves to be illuminated for another generation, not least because in bringing Anders Lassen back to life Thomas Harder paints a vivid and compelling picture of an extraordinary tribe of irregular citizen-soldiers whose spirit, panache and élan still lives on amongst those to whom that wartime generation passed the baton. Who dares wins.

From the Foreword by General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith KCB CBE ADC Gen

Anders Lassen VC was the legendary WWII special forces commander almost without compare. His men would follow him to hell and back and this timely and exhaustively researched book does his story full justice. It is a gem, no less.

Damien Lewis, best selling author of Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII

Review by Robert Bartlett

This is an excellent book. The depth of research is a tribute to the author as is his drive to ensure what he has written is balanced and fair not just to Lassen but his comrades. There are numerous pages of reference and notes, a bibliography and a detailed index all supporting the detailed and humbling story of this young man.

Oxford and Cambridge Club Military History Group

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Thomas Harder's compendium of Anders Lassen's war skilfully blends the operational and recreational excesses of a man born for the role, alongside the multitudinous diverse and dangerous operations of the SBS during that time. (Readers should also look at SBS Silent Warriors - Saul David and Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - Giles Milton).
Following the story of countless missions, countless risks, outstanding leadership in adversity and counterintuitive duties in civil governance later in the war as areas were liberated potentially into the hands of warring tribal factions, it is easy to forget that Lassen was only 24 when he was killed. His unorthodoxy and contempt for military bureaucracy, combined with his intuitive tactical and battlefield genius meant he was only (and sometimes only just) suited to a career in special forces and a large measure of SBS success on operations he was involved in can be attributed to him.
The book also highlights the blind mindset of officers and officials working at the policy level. Many, even late in the war did not appreciate the inestimable strategic value of special forces and gleefully disbanded them as soon as they could. And Lassen's VC was almost vetoed because he was not a member of Commonwealth forces, even though he was fighting with the allies. In fact, one is tempted to say that he was under-rewarded. For all the work he did as an acting Major in strategic military and civil administration he should have been awarded a DSO. Three MC's is unprecedented, but the range and scope of his gallantry suggest there should have been more. And, maybe controversially, one is tempted to ask whether he would have got the VC had he not been killed in that extraordinary final action.
These questions, and more, are for the reader of this incredibly well researched and structured book that will appeal to anyone interested in military history and in particular the genuine heroics of our nascent special forces.

Julian Patmore