Bill Millin: Scotsman, bagpiper on D-Day.

In the cinematic documents of the Second World War there is video footage of British troops marching through Caen, France behind a military bagpiper. The footage reminded me of an article written about a WWII veteran and Scotsman named Bill Millin. Bill was a British

Army band member (First Special Service Brigade) and was (in)famous for his playing the bagpipes while advancing toward Nazi entrenchments on Sword beach during the invasion of Normandy. I think of how Christ is with people in the familiar aspects of their own culture's melody and song. Far from home and weary, the familiar and extremely resounding tunes of the pipes must have given the battle-hardened soldiers and sailors a taste of connection to home and their loved ones. The particularly loud and nasally Scottish pipes are able to be heard for what seems like miles. This would have been both a blessing and a curse in that many of the British soldiers near the pipes would have benefitted from its song, but it would have also been a perfect way to give away your position to the enemy.

There was a fantastic article published in The New York Times about Bill that says,

"The young piper was approached shortly before the landings by the brigade’s commanding officer, Brig. Simon Fraser, who as the 15th Lord Lovat was the hereditary chief of the Clan Fraser and one of Scotland’s most celebrated aristocrats. Against orders from World War I that forbade playing bagpipes on the battlefield because of the high risk of attracting enemy fire, Lord Lovat, then 32, asked Private Millin to play on the beachhead to raise morale.

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.

I shall never forget hearing the skirl of Bill Millin’s pipes,” one of the commandos, Tom Duncan, said years later. “As well as the pride we felt, it reminded us of home, and why we were fighting there for our lives and those of our loved ones.”” - John F. Burns, NYT

The fact that this instrument was so beloved as to risk one's life in order to raise morale is a testament to how music and culture influence the human spirit. And it is in that influence that we can find Christ, who, even in the deadly, cold, and enemy ridden places like Normandy beach, can present human beings with the hope of returning to their loved ones, or becoming part of the tunes themselves.

More from the article,

"After wading ashore in waist-high water that he said caused his kilt to float, Private Millin reached the beach, then marched up and down, unarmed, playing the tunes Lord Lovat had requested, including “Highland Laddie” and “Road to the Isles.”

With German troops raking the beach with artillery and machine-gun fire, the young piper played on as his fellow soldiers advanced through smoke and flame on the German positions, or fell on the beach. . . He said he found out later, after meeting Germans who had manned guns above the beach, that they didn’t shoot him “because they thought I was crazy." - John F. Burns, NYT

(Bill at his home in Scotland, the bagpiper of D-Day.)