20 August, 2010

Bill Millin & The Bagpipes of Sword Beach

Bill Millin, a private who landed on Sword Beach with the British Army's First Special Service Brigade, has died. He achieved fame during the war as the man who came ashore on D-Day armed not with a rifle, but with a set of bagpipes... which he played while under fire to boost the morale of his mostly Scottish unit.  His musical feat was immortalized in one of my favorite sequences from The Longest Day (which is in turn, one of my all-time favorite movies):



Rest In Peace, Mr. Millin. And thank you for your service.

Obituary:
Bill Millin, Scottish D-Day Piper, Dies at 88 (The Times of London)

No comments: