When Scottish troops landed on "Sword" beach in Normandy on June 6th, 1944 they were encouraged on by Bill Millin who played bagpipes on the beach while under fire. He was playing "...morale-pumping tunes for his fellow commandos". He carried no weapons except his "ceremonial dagger". He was the only bagpiper on Normandy beaches that day and his actions were depicted in the D-Day movie "The Longest Day". When his unit captured a number of German snipers, they were asked why they didn't target the bagpiper. Their response was "...they didn't bother..." because he appeared to "..be on a suicide mission and was clearly mad". We was referred to thereafter as the "mad piper". Millin died recently at the age of 88.
(Source: "Bill Millin; braved enemy fire to play bagpipes on D-Day" by T. Ress Shapiro of The Washington Post. In The Record on 8/21/10).
No comments:
Post a Comment