Description
Physical description
Double-breasted jacket of midnight blue cloth with wide lapels. The jacket has two rows of four gilt Royal Norwegian Navy crested buttons to the front and has flapless hip pockets. To the cuffs are decorated with two rows of gold lace, the upper row decorated with an open 'eye'. There are two medal ribbons sewn above the left breast (no pocket): Norwegian Defence Participation Medal 1940-1945, and France and Germany Star.
History note
Born 1921, Anders Schröder was from a seafaring family and went to sea at the age of 16. Following the German occupation, in 1940 he was obliged to join the Norwegian Arbeits Dienst. This experience fuelled his desire to follow the Allied cause and so he and a friend escaped from Norway to neutral Sweden in a mid-winter trek across mountains, avoiding German patrols. Leaving Sweden he managed to get to Scotland and was commissioned into the Royal Norwegian Navy, later attending Naval College in London. He saw initial active service on Royal Naval destroyers, escorting convoys in the Western Approaches. Transferred to HMS TALYBONT in 1944, Schroder was to see much action off Normandy during the Invasion. The TALYBONT, a type II Hunt Class Escort Destroyer, left Weymouth with the invasion fleet on 5th June (Operation NEPTUNE). Sailing with Convoy 01, it headed for OMAHA beach, joining US battleships TEXAS, ARKANSAS & HMS GLASGOW and the Free French cruisers, MONTCALM, GEORGES LEYGUES as Bombarding Force C in support of the landings off OMAHA. TALYBONT was involved in close fire support missions, directly assisting the landing of US Rangers who were scaling the cliffs of POINTE DU HOC, together with the USS SATTERLEE. The shallow draft of the TALYBONT enabled it to position itself close to the landing area and therefore could deliver accurate covering fire, often pinpointing individual weapons that were engaged against US amphibious DUKWs. Lieutenant Schröder commanded X-gun throughout that and subsequent actions when TALYBONT continued to play a part in covering the beaches and offering protection against hostile sea and air attack.
Following the liberation of Norway, and the return of the Norwegian Royal Family from exile in Great Britain, Schröder accompanied HRH King Haakon on a voyage the length of Norway to visit the many isolated communities that had suffered the Nazi occupation.
The criteria for the award of the Defence Participation Medal, 1940-1945 is recorded as follows: To Norwegian and Allied military and civilians who resisted the German invasion of 9 April 1940, who served in the Norwegian armed forces or the Merchant Marine during the war or who were active in Norway in the winter of 1944-1945 and to Allied personnel who took part in the liberation of Norway.
An image of Anders Schröder is held within the file.