The Mad Piper
History calls him the mad piper. There's even a statue of him that stands on the Normandy beach where his legacy was made on that fateful day of June 6, 1944. D-Day. Sometime earlier, a young Scottish soldier named Bill Millin had been made personal piper to one of the top British commanders, Lord Lovat. The British War Office had banned bagpipers from leading troops into combat after the great losses suffered by the Scottish units in World War I but Lovat, the hereditary chief of Clan Fraser and descended himself from a long line of Scottish warriors, told Millin, "Ah, but that's the English War Office. You and I are Scottish, so that doesn't apply." Thus, Millin was allowed to offer piping services to his unit and to Lovat when necessary. And that's how 21-year-old Bill found himself alongside thousands of allied troops on that grey, windy morning in June, battling seasickness from the rough tossing of the landing craft and destined for a likely death ...
