[Andrew Wardroper]

Hello, everyone,

Just to let you know that my father, W.K. Wardroper, Capt. (retd), 1st Bn. Canadian Scottish Regiment, is alive and well living in Victoria, B.C. He is tickled pink that he has achieved some notoriety on the Worldwideweb. To correct one thing on the posting, the picture of the fellow with nurses hanging on his arm is not my father, it is an unknown corporal. The fellow in the picture with the grenade threatening his private parts is my father.

My father was invited back to Holland in April 1995 for the celebration of the Liberation, to aid in the launching of a written history of Deventer during the occupation. To my father's surprise, they brought out the two women nurses in the famous picture, who were sure they recognized my father from 50 years ago. My father, to his great credit, did not ruin the moment by letting on he was not the fellow in the picture. Dad did say that he and his men were mobbed by ecstatic Dutch nursing students as they worked their way into the centre of town, with German bullets still flying overhead, so there is an element of truth about the whole affair. During the actual event in 1945, my father had reconnoitred into Deventer the previous evening, where he connected to the still-functioning phone network, spoke to a Dutch underground fighter over the phone and left, having gained no doubt important information. He met this same fellow over 15 years later by accident at a party in Los Angeles.

Thanks for letting me contribute