Bill Millin Wiki | D-Day's 'Mad Piper' Bill Millin Died | Hero Bagpiper Passes Away

A hero bagpiper who played soldiers into battle during World War II has died.

Bill Millin, 88, died after a short illness in a nursing home in Devon where he lived after suffering a stroke several years ago, his family said.

Mr Millin was immortalised in the film The Longest Day.

Nicknamed the Mad Piper, he braved German bullets and bombs as he played his comrades ashore on Sword Beach during the D-Day Normandy landings.

Military bosses had ordered pipers not to play because of fears over the level of casualties at the landings.

But that decision was ignored by 1st Commando Brigade commander Lord Lovat.

He told Mr Millin, then 21 years old, to play away and so troops were led ashore to the sound of Highland Laddie, Blue Bonnets over the Border and Road to the Isles.

However, the pipes were silenced four days later by a shard of shrapnel.

Mr Millin - a celebrated hero in France - was the only soldier wearing a kilt, which was also worn by his father in the trenches during the First World War.

It is said that his actions amused the Germans and some claimed they did not shoot him because they thought he was mad

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