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William Millin (14 July 1922 – 17 August 2010)[1], commonly known as Piper Bill, was personal piper to Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, commander of 1 Special Service Brigade at D-Day.
Millin is best remembered for playing the pipes whilst under fire during the D-Day landing in Normandy.[4] Pipers had traditionally been used in battle by Scottish and Irish soldiers.[5] However, the use of bagpipes was restricted to rear areas by the time of the Second World War by the British Army. Lovat, nevertheless, ignored these orders and ordered Millin, then aged 21, to play. When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: "Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply." He played "Highland Laddie" "The Road to the Isles" and "All The Blue Bonnets Are Over The Border" as his comrades fell around him on Sword.[1] Millin states that he later talked to captured German snipers who claimed they did not shoot at him because they thought he had gone mad.[6]
Millin, whom Lovat had appointed his personal piper during commando training at Achnacarry, near Fort William in Scotland, was the only man during the landing who wore a kilt – it was the same Cameron tartan kilt his father had worn in Flanders during World War I – and he was armed only with his pipes and the sgian-dubh, or "black knife", sheathed inside his kilt-hose on the right side.[2]
Lovat and Millin advanced from Sword to Pegasus Bridge, which had been defiantly defended by men of the 2nd Bn the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry (6th Airborne Division) who had landed in the early hours by glider. Lovat's commandos arrived at a little past one p.m. at Pegasus Bridge although the rendezvous time in the plan was noon. To the sound of Millin's bagpipes, the commandos marched across Pegasus Bridge. During the march, twelve men died, most shot through their berets.[7] Later detachments of the commandos rushed across in small groups with helmets on. Millin's D-Day bagpipes were later donated to Dawlish Museum. A set of pipes he used later in the campaign, after the originals became damaged, were donated to the now "Pegasus Bridge Museum".[8][9]
Millin is best remembered for playing the pipes whilst under fire during the D-Day landing in Normandy.[4] Pipers had traditionally been used in battle by Scottish and Irish soldiers.[5] However, the use of bagpipes was restricted to rear areas by the time of the Second World War by the British Army. Lovat, nevertheless, ignored these orders and ordered Millin, then aged 21, to play. When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: "Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply." He played "Highland Laddie" "The Road to the Isles" and "All The Blue Bonnets Are Over The Border" as his comrades fell around him on Sword.[1] Millin states that he later talked to captured German snipers who claimed they did not shoot at him because they thought he had gone mad.[6]
Millin, whom Lovat had appointed his personal piper during commando training at Achnacarry, near Fort William in Scotland, was the only man during the landing who wore a kilt – it was the same Cameron tartan kilt his father had worn in Flanders during World War I – and he was armed only with his pipes and the sgian-dubh, or "black knife", sheathed inside his kilt-hose on the right side.[2]
Lovat and Millin advanced from Sword to Pegasus Bridge, which had been defiantly defended by men of the 2nd Bn the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry (6th Airborne Division) who had landed in the early hours by glider. Lovat's commandos arrived at a little past one p.m. at Pegasus Bridge although the rendezvous time in the plan was noon. To the sound of Millin's bagpipes, the commandos marched across Pegasus Bridge. During the march, twelve men died, most shot through their berets.[7] Later detachments of the commandos rushed across in small groups with helmets on. Millin's D-Day bagpipes were later donated to Dawlish Museum. A set of pipes he used later in the campaign, after the originals became damaged, were donated to the now "Pegasus Bridge Museum".[8][9]
Bill Millin - Wikipedia
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Piper Bill Millin interview,2008.mp4
Interview at Dawlish Museum in 2008 with Piper Bill Millin in front of his famous D-Day bagpipes.This was for a documentary project by an Exeter College stud...
Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that July 14 is the anniversary of the birth of personal piper to Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, commander of 1 Special Service Brigade at D-Day William Millin.
Rest in peace William Millin.
Piper Bill Millin interview,2008
"Interview at Dawlish Museum in 2008 with Piper Bill Millin in front of his famous D-Day bagpipes.This was for a documentary project by an Exeter College student.(please excuse the minor spelling mistakes in a few of the sub-titles.)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOlbyFYg6as
Images:
1. PVT Bill Millin
2. Before D-Day, Bill Millin plays the bagpipe for these comrades in England.
3. June 6, 1944 As shells exploded overhead and German snipers tried to pick off the advancing commandos, Private Millin was told to play Highland Laddie, Blue Bonnets Over the Border and Our Road to the Isles.
4. Bill Millin revisits Normandy beach.
Background from
Bill Millin was born on July 14, 1922 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was only 21 at the time of the Normandy landings, at which time he served as a soldier in the 1st Special Service Brigade commanded by Simon Fraser, also known as Lord Lovat, fifteenth and twenty name -fifth leader of the Scottish clan of the Fraser. Millin becomes the Fraser staff bagpiper and is known in his unit to play regularly for his instrument during the rest phases in England before D-Day
Since World War II, a decree of the English War Office, the British Ministry of War forbade pipers (also known pipers) to use their instrument in the forefront for obvious tactical reasons and limited their jobs at the back lines. However, D-Day, Lord Lovat asked his piper to play in encouraging his men in the battle, in full traditional Scottish fighters. Fraser tells him: “You and I are Scots and it is an English decree, it does not concern us!” Millin runs and takes his bagpipe under his arm at the time of borrowing the ramp landing, opposite the German defenders of the Sword beach in La Brèche Hermanville.
Lovat asks him to play Hielan ‘Laddie and The Road to the Isles. As British troops landed under heavy enemy fire, the nasal sound of a bagpipe suddenly mingled with the sounds of explosions and machine guns. For a moment, according to the testimony of Corporal Maurice Chauvet Kieffer commando landing on the beach at this moment, the Germans stop shooting, dazed to attend such a scene. Bill Millin arrives unhindered and the beach falls into the hands of the Allies.
For the attackers, the war is not over yet. They must then raise the paratroopers troops of the 6th Airborne Division who have mastered the bridges over the Orne and the Caen Canal during the night of June 5 to 6, 1944. The British landed troops, accompanied by French commandos commanded by Philippe Kieffer, set out for these bridges at Bénouville and Ranville, south of Ouistreham. En route, the Allies are slowed down by German snipers. Nevertheless, they manage to reach the paratroopers at one o’clock, two minutes and thirty seconds precisely: Lovat apologizes to Major Howard and his paratroopers, who held all night and the morning of D-Day in the face of German attacks, for one hundred and fifty seconds behind the scheduled time.
Before crossing the famous Pegasus Bridge, the Bénouville Bridge, which is still the prey of German mortars and snipers, Allied soldiers fire smoke grenades to limit their exposure at the time of crossing. At the time of the crossing, Bill Millin resumes his bagpipes and the dismounted troops resume the progression to the sound of his instrument.
Mullen radio, a Kieffer commando member who disembarked at Sword Beach in the morning, hears a bullet ricocheting right behind him over the structure of the bridge. When he turns, he sees in the smoke one of his comrades wounded by the bullet of a sniper, a German sniper (this soldier dies a few moments later as a result of his injury). He lowers to help but is hit by a sniper and collapses, lifeless.
Bill Millin was immortalized by the film The Longest Day of 1962. His character is performed by the official piper of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain. England, Leslie Pipe Major of Laspee. Until his death, he went almost every year to Normandy to attend and participate in the commemorations of the landing, with his bagpipes and framed by many pipers.
After the war, Bill Millin wanted to give his bagpipes to various museums of the landing. The instrument he used at Sword Beach at the time of the landing is now visible at the Dawlish Museum in Devon (Great Britain). Another of his bagpipes is at the Pegasus Bridge memorial museum in Ranville, France.
He died on August 18, 2010 at the age of 88 at Torbay Hospital in Torquay, Devon, following a heart attack."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SPC (Join to see) Cpl Joshua Caldwell SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
Rest in peace William Millin.
Piper Bill Millin interview,2008
"Interview at Dawlish Museum in 2008 with Piper Bill Millin in front of his famous D-Day bagpipes.This was for a documentary project by an Exeter College student.(please excuse the minor spelling mistakes in a few of the sub-titles.)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOlbyFYg6as
Images:
1. PVT Bill Millin
2. Before D-Day, Bill Millin plays the bagpipe for these comrades in England.
3. June 6, 1944 As shells exploded overhead and German snipers tried to pick off the advancing commandos, Private Millin was told to play Highland Laddie, Blue Bonnets Over the Border and Our Road to the Isles.
4. Bill Millin revisits Normandy beach.
Background from
Bill Millin was born on July 14, 1922 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was only 21 at the time of the Normandy landings, at which time he served as a soldier in the 1st Special Service Brigade commanded by Simon Fraser, also known as Lord Lovat, fifteenth and twenty name -fifth leader of the Scottish clan of the Fraser. Millin becomes the Fraser staff bagpiper and is known in his unit to play regularly for his instrument during the rest phases in England before D-Day
Since World War II, a decree of the English War Office, the British Ministry of War forbade pipers (also known pipers) to use their instrument in the forefront for obvious tactical reasons and limited their jobs at the back lines. However, D-Day, Lord Lovat asked his piper to play in encouraging his men in the battle, in full traditional Scottish fighters. Fraser tells him: “You and I are Scots and it is an English decree, it does not concern us!” Millin runs and takes his bagpipe under his arm at the time of borrowing the ramp landing, opposite the German defenders of the Sword beach in La Brèche Hermanville.
Lovat asks him to play Hielan ‘Laddie and The Road to the Isles. As British troops landed under heavy enemy fire, the nasal sound of a bagpipe suddenly mingled with the sounds of explosions and machine guns. For a moment, according to the testimony of Corporal Maurice Chauvet Kieffer commando landing on the beach at this moment, the Germans stop shooting, dazed to attend such a scene. Bill Millin arrives unhindered and the beach falls into the hands of the Allies.
For the attackers, the war is not over yet. They must then raise the paratroopers troops of the 6th Airborne Division who have mastered the bridges over the Orne and the Caen Canal during the night of June 5 to 6, 1944. The British landed troops, accompanied by French commandos commanded by Philippe Kieffer, set out for these bridges at Bénouville and Ranville, south of Ouistreham. En route, the Allies are slowed down by German snipers. Nevertheless, they manage to reach the paratroopers at one o’clock, two minutes and thirty seconds precisely: Lovat apologizes to Major Howard and his paratroopers, who held all night and the morning of D-Day in the face of German attacks, for one hundred and fifty seconds behind the scheduled time.
Before crossing the famous Pegasus Bridge, the Bénouville Bridge, which is still the prey of German mortars and snipers, Allied soldiers fire smoke grenades to limit their exposure at the time of crossing. At the time of the crossing, Bill Millin resumes his bagpipes and the dismounted troops resume the progression to the sound of his instrument.
Mullen radio, a Kieffer commando member who disembarked at Sword Beach in the morning, hears a bullet ricocheting right behind him over the structure of the bridge. When he turns, he sees in the smoke one of his comrades wounded by the bullet of a sniper, a German sniper (this soldier dies a few moments later as a result of his injury). He lowers to help but is hit by a sniper and collapses, lifeless.
Bill Millin was immortalized by the film The Longest Day of 1962. His character is performed by the official piper of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain. England, Leslie Pipe Major of Laspee. Until his death, he went almost every year to Normandy to attend and participate in the commemorations of the landing, with his bagpipes and framed by many pipers.
After the war, Bill Millin wanted to give his bagpipes to various museums of the landing. The instrument he used at Sword Beach at the time of the landing is now visible at the Dawlish Museum in Devon (Great Britain). Another of his bagpipes is at the Pegasus Bridge memorial museum in Ranville, France.
He died on August 18, 2010 at the age of 88 at Torbay Hospital in Torquay, Devon, following a heart attack."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SPC (Join to see) Cpl Joshua Caldwell SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
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