On June 6th 1944, a lone Scottish piper played his comrades ashore as they stormed the beaches during the Normandy landings of D-Day. 80 years on and that familiar melody has echoed through the early morning French air once again.
The piper wading through the icy waters at Sword Beach that day was William Millin, the personal piper to Brigadier The Lord Lovat, who commanded No.4 Commando 1st Special Service Brigade.
I’m totally humbled and privileged to be a part of these commemorations. To remember the memory of those young soldiers and the veterans who are still with us today, I wanted to do it for all of them
Bill, as he was known, was the only man who wore a kilt during the landings, which featured the same Cameron tartan kilt his father had worn in Flanders during the First World War. He was armed only with his traditional dirk dagger sheathed inside his kilt-hose and of course his trusty pipes.
80 years later, on Gold Beach at Arromanches on the coast of Normandy, Pipe Major Trevor Macey-Lillie of 19th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Scottish Gunners) based at Larkhill in Wiltshire, replicated piper Bill’s landing, arriving on a second World War-era amphibious vehicle (a DUKW).
And at precisely 0725, he filled his pipes with air and played a lament marking 80 years to the minute since the D-Day beach assault began:
“I’m totally humbled and privileged to be a part of these commemorations. To remember the memory of those young soldiers and the veterans who are still with us today, I wanted to do it for all of them.”
He added:
“Taking the same footsteps as Bill Millin had done all those years ago to boost the morale of all these troops, words are hard to find as it’s such an emotional moment.”
Pipers had traditionally been used in battle by Scottish and Irish soldiers, but by the Second World War the use of bagpipes was restricted to rear areas between the frontline and home territory.
However, Lord Lovat ignored this and ordered his piper, then aged 21, to play.
When Private Millin raised his concerns about this , Lord Lovat replied:
"Ah, but that's the English War Office - you and I are both Scottish, and that doesn't apply."
Trevor started playing the pipes at home in Scotland at the age of 16 and made the journey across the water on a DUKW from England to Normandy on this cold, bracing morning:
“It was very cold, emotions were high, but I really wanted to experience what it would have been like for those troops making that crossing 80 years ago.
“The fear that those soldiers had landing on to the beaches must have been immense, my nerves were wrecked, but theirs would have been so much worse.”
Standing in the early June sunshine Trevor puts into words why we should always remember this day:
“We should never forget what those young soldiers did 80 years ago. So many lives were lost to give us the freedom we have today. We need to remember the sacrifice they made for us.”
