photo: BILL KEAY/VancouverSun

   William Roberts recalls the end of the Second World War in Europe like it was yesterday.  Driving through Amsterdam on a motorcycle, he was constantly besieged by a grateful Dutch populace, deliriously happy to be liberated after six years under German occupation.

   Unbeknownst to the young Canadian army captain, a photographer captured the moment.  A grinning Roberts is shown steering the motorcycle through the streets, with a trio of beautiful Dutch women clinging on for dear life.

  It's a classic shot, one that vividly captures the joy and relief the world felt on Victory in Europe Day, May 6, 1945.

  In Holland, the photo has become a popular symbol of the liberation, and is featured in school books.  And just in time for Roberts' 84th birthday on Saturday, it has become a Dutch stamp.

   Ironically, Roberts had no idea the photo had been chosen for the honour until a friend received the stamp in the mail this week.  But perhaps that's only fitting.   After all, he didn't know the photo existed until someone sent a copy to the Seaforth Highlanders, his company, in 1946.  He still doesn't know who took the photo.

   How does his wife Nan feel about her husband being immortalized with some unknown women?  "I knew how terrible the war had been," she says, tongue planted firmly in cheek.  "It was nice to know there was a break in it there somewhere."

   The Roberts recently celebrated their 60th anniversary.   War was declared on Sept. 3, 1939, and they were married three days later.   In November, Roberts was sent overseas, where he remained for six years, except for a short stint of officer training in 1942.

   Roberts has quite a stock of war stories.   His sergeant in the Seaforth Highlanders was the fiery former Vancouver councillor Harry Rankin.  "He was what we call a barrack-room lawyer," recalls Roberts with a laugh.  "If you gave him an order, he'd say 'Why?'"

   Roberts was wounded twice.   The first time, he was hit by a mortar shell in Italy.  "My cheek was laid open, I was a hell of a mess," he explains.   "It landed in my jaw.  A piece of shrapnel went through the knot of my tie, and cut my field-glasses off.  I was hit all the way up my arm, in both shoulders, and in my hip.   As I wired my wife, I was hit in both right cheeks."

   But his worst luck came a month after VE-Day, when he was injured in an explosion at an ammunition dump while waiting to go backto Canada.

   "The head wound didn't do me any good mentally," says Roberts. "I could think all right, but I had trouble speaking, and I couldn't write."

   He returned to Canada and slowly but surely recovered. He remained in the army until 1960, rising to the rank of major (he entered the Second World War a corporal).  He later worked for the federal government, and spent several years as the student placement officer at Simon Fraser University.

   The motorcycle photo had been in a drawer for several years.  But the Roberts family is very proud, and honoured, that it's been chosen for a stamp by the Dutch government.