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D-Day Normandy Orig. Film, Mad Piper Bill Millin, Lord Lovat Regiment, Sword Beach June 6, 1944
Last edited Sun Feb 27, 2022, 04:51 PM - Edit history (1)
- Original D-Day footage US Troops storming the Beaches of Normandy, (3:40 mins). US troops embarking on the journey to coastal northern France. Incredible original D-Day footage where Allied forces try to secure the beachheads and silence the German gunners once and for all. Filmed 0n June 6, 1944.
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- The History Underground. (14 mins). Pt. 5, "Normandy 1944" Series. (Prod. in partnership w Gettysbg Mus. of History).
- Piper Bill Millin plays his pipes for fellow soldiers in 1944.
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Of the 150,000+ men who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, it's hard to argue that there were any who were more unique than British commandos Lord Lovat and his bagpiper, Bill Millin. In this episode, we're going to Sword Beach to the show where Lord Lovat and Bill Millan landed with the 1st Special Service Brigade on June 6th and fought to link up with the men of the Ox and Bucks at Pegasus Bridge. Much to see and learn here!
(Correction, I say that Lord Lovat's link up with the Ox & Bucks was the 1st linkup between the seaborne & airborne forces. Although Lovat claimed to be the 1st, it was actually element of No. 6 Commando arriving on bicycles that were the 1st to cross Pegasus).
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- 'Piper Bill' recalls the landing at Normandy (1 min). Scottish Highland Bagpiper, D-Day 1944. ("The Germans used to call bagpipes 'whistling death' because they knew it was over when the bagpipes got closer & louder." YT comment).
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- William Millin (14 July 1922- 18 Aug. 2010), commonly known as Piper Bill, was personal piper to Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, cmder 1 Special Service Brigade at D-Day. Millin b. in Saskatchewan, Canada, 14 July 1922 to a father of Scottish origin who moved the family to Canada but returned to Glasgow as a policeman when William was three.
He grew up and went to school in the Shettleston area of the city. He joined the Territorial Army in Fort William, where his family had moved, and played in the pipe bands of the Highland Light Infantry and the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders before volunteering as a commando and training with Lovat at Achnacarry along with French, Dutch, Belgian, Polish, Norwegian, and Czechoslovak troops..https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Millin
- Piper Bill Millin's bagpipes played on Sword during the D-Day landings on display at Dawlish Museum along with his bonnet, 100-year-old kilt and dirk.
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- Battle of Culloden, 1746.
- 'Bagpipes used to be classified as weapons of war.' Sept. 01, 2021.
In the 21st century, troops go to war with weapons ranging from handguns and rifles to fighter planes and warships. It may surprise people to learn that, until 1996, the British government considered the bagpipes to be a bona fide weapon of war. The classification goes back to the last of the Jacobite Risings. In 1745, Charles Edward Stuart launched an uprising in the Scottish Highlands to reclaim the British throne for his father. Despite some initial successes, Stuart’s forces were crushed at the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746.
James Reid was one of several pipers who played at Culloden and were subsequently captured. He was taken to England and put on trial for treason. Reid’s defense was that he was a noncombatant and carried only a bagpipe on the field. However, the commission appointed to the treason cases disagreed. The commission was headed by the chief baron of the Court of Exchequer who reasoned that Highland regiments “never marched without a piper; and therefor [Reid’s] bagpipe, in the eye of the law, was an instrument of war.” Reid was found guilty of treason and hanged in York, England on Nov. 15, 1746.
The commission’s ruling is considered the first to declare a musical instrument to be a weapon of war. It set a precedent that lasted for hundreds of years. In fact, when they were captured in combat, bagpipes were not inventoried as musical instruments like drums or bugles. Rather, they were listed as weapons along with sabers, rifles, and munitions. During WWI, roughly 2,500 British soldiers served as pipers and crossed No Man’s Land armed only with their bagpipes...
https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/bagpipes-used-to-be-classified-as-weapons-of-war/
