Bill Millin, Scottish D-Day Piper, Dies at 88

NYT ^ | 8/19/10 | JOHN F. BURNS

[Kartographer]

Bill Millin, a Scottish bagpiper who played highland tunes as his fellow commandos landed on a Normandy beach on D-Day and lived to see his bravado immortalized in the 1962 film “The Longest Day,” died on Wednesday in a hospital in the western England county of Devon. He was 88.

[Kartographer]

Bill Millin playing the bagpipes in an photograph from World War II taken shortly after D-Day.

[Perdogg]

RIP

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[jla]

fyi

[mrmeyer]

RIP.

My grandfather was a combat engineer that went ashore at Omaha during the 1st assault wave. When I was a boy he told me how you could hear the Scots playing the pipes over the din of battle and also how the Brits would break for tea even though shooting was still going on.

[Joe 6-pack]

"...The flowers of the forest are a' wede away...."

RIP

[Romulus]

lived to see his bravado immortalized

That wasn't bravado; it was bravery.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

God go with you piper.

[AnglePark]

We have a piper down! I repeat, a piper is down!

RIP, Piper Millin.

[Kartographer]

Celtic Bagpipe Music - Sgt. Mackenzie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do_o5CCXE9Y&feature=related

[yarddog]

My Father was also in the combat engineers and interestingly, he too used to tell us about the British and their tea. He said some of ours were just as bad about coffee.

[Perdogg]

I would have loved to have seen the faces of the Krauts when he came ashore playing.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Hey, now... I’m part Kraut. Of course, I’m part Scottish. I’m so confused.

[Churchillspirit]

Sleep in peace, now the battle's o'er.

[Kartographer]

Sgt. Mackenzie

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

When they come I will stand my ground
Stand my ground I'll not be afraid
Thoughts of home take away my fear
Sweat and blood hide my veil of tears

Once a year say a prayer for me
Close your eyes and remember me
Never more shall I see the sun
For I fell to a Germans gun

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

Where before many more have gone
In memory of Sgt. Charles Stuart MacKenzie
Seaforth Highlanders
Who along with many others gave up his life
So that we can live free
We will remember them

[Perdogg]

LOL!

[TigersEye]

Don’t beat yourself up about it! ;^)

[cbvanb]

God bless the British of yesteryear, they knew how to throw a war!

[Cheburashka]

Bill Millen and Lord Lovat in The Longest Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrUs5AfrNjc

[tarawa]

Were the Germans more afraid of the guns or the pipes?