D-Day piper returns
Bill Millin, now 86, marched up and down the sand on Sword beach, wearing his kilt and playing his treasured pipes, on The Longest Day in 1944.
Just 21, Mr Millin was under orders from his commanding officer, Lord Lovat, to boost the morale of the troops. He was unarmed apart from his dirk in his sock, and miraculously escaped unscathed.
The bagpipes were damaged by shrapnel, but after leaving the beach he calmly replaced them and carried on playing all the way to Pegasus Bridge.
From there his unit from the 1st Commando Brigade reinforced the exhausted troops who had landed gliders in the night and helped to secure the crucial crossing point over the Caen canal.
One of the two sets he used on D-Day now has pride of place in the Pegasus Bridge Museum, and staff have allowed Mr Millin to take them out and hold them once more.
As part of this weekend's commemorations to mark to the 65th anniversary of the crucial storming of the beaches, Mr Millin returned to Normandy.
Sitting at the very point on the four-mile-long Sword Beach where he landed and played, it was the first time he has held his beloved pipes in 20 years.
Mr Millin, who now lives in a nursing home in Dawlish, Devon, said: "I feel pride to be back here – and sadness for those who didn't make it. Our brigade lost 280 men on that first day, and when I'm here I can still see the faces of some who died.
"I'm glad I've been able to come back again and pay my own tribute by just being here and remembering."
Originally from Fort William, Scotland, Mr Millin, a former nurse, has lived in the Westcountry for more than 30 years.
A second set of Mr Millin's pipes damaged during the war are housed in Dawlish museum.
Having suffered a stroke several years ago, Mr Millin is now confined to a wheelchair and is unable to play his beloved pipes.
But he has written about how he struck up the pipes as he waded waist-deep in water to the shore, with men falling around him.
He said: "I paddled through the surf playing Hieland Laddie, and Lord Lovat turned round and looked at me and gestured approvingly.
"When I finished, Lovat asked for another tune. Well, when I looked round – the noise and people lying about shouting and the smoke, the crump of mortars, I said to myself, 'Well, you must be joking, surely'.
"He said, 'Would you mind giving us a tune?' 'Well, what tune would you like, Sir?' 'How about The Road To The Isles?'
"'Now would you want me to walk up and down, Sir?' 'Yes, that would be nice – walk up and down'."
The action was portrayed in the 1962 film The Longest Day. In the film, Mr Millin was played by Pipe Major Leslie de Laspee, the official piper to the Queen Mother in 1961.
On this, his second visit to Normandy in the last five years, Mr Millin is being feted by the French.
A tribute concert with French pipers has been planned, as well as a reception for him at the Pegasus Bridge Museum.
