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Bravery and bagpipes: How British flair was crucial to success of D-Day • FRANCE 24 English

  • June 4, 2024



Bravery and bagpipes: How British flair was crucial to success of D-Day • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] John millan’s Father Bill played Highland ly as he came ashore at sword Beach on [Music] D-Day he was the personal Piper to Lord love it who led a brigade of British [Music] Commandos dad wore this Kil on dday and trying not to get it wet but that didn’t succeed cuz once he came off the landing craft he was up to his waste in water uh the pipes are the pipes he played on dday every time even though you know it’s very emotional to actually see them and see what well what the pipes went through as well as Dad the men were told to get off the beach fast or they would die there the air was full machine gun fire and mortars there shells exploding in the air there’s a couple of tanks on fire and these Mart up and down playing the bag pipes and some of the commanders when they went past him their faces were really Grim but they saw Dad and they smiled and say oh well done Jo we’ll be all right now incredibly Bill Millan or the Mad Piper as he became known survived after the ward dad spoke to some German snipers who were there on the day and they didn’t shoot him they had him in his sights but they didn’t shoot him because it was bad luck they considered it bad luck to kill an obvious madman in the battlefield Bill Millan was one of 156,000 Allied troops the majority American Canadian and British who crossed the English Channel and landed by air and sea in Normandy on D-Day this is where hundreds of Landing CFT left to make their journey across to Normandy back in June 1944 on the 5th of June it said that you couldn’t see the sea because this was thick with landing craft the following day on the 6th of June it was complet completely silent because they were all on their way across the across the France 800 Landing crafts like this one were built to carry tanks they traveled right up onto the beach um and then the the the bow door which is at the end um would have come down and then a tank Cruise would have been able to drive them off right right off onto the beach um in into battle it was cramped and bumpy on board diesel fumes filled the air there the men shared one toilet and many got seasick the conditions were were were pretty nasty on board that they just wanted to to to get off when they got there despite knowing what they were going into when when when they landed on the beaches for D-Day to be successful the Allies also needed to secure strategic Inland positions in Normandy Penny Howard bates’s father the legendary Major John Howard was a British officer who commanded a highly Dangerous Mission this is p uh now Pegasus bridge and the landing zone is there you see what a small area it was there were trees at one end and they had to land in the dark of night at midnight on this little strip of land they flew in quietly on gliders to capture two Bridges one was later renamed Pegasus Bridge after the Boulder emblem worn by British Airborne forces there was no firing we had complete surprise and that moment I will never never forget and I relive it every time I go back to France now for the anniversaries of our Landings major Howard and his men quickly overpowered the Germans there was only about um 50 at the at the bridges so there weren’t that many um and they were in command within 15 minutes and sending out the success signal that was a success signal that was blown from the bridges to tell the parachutist who dropped after an hour after us that the bridges had been captured intact major Howard then needed to hold the bridges until reinforcements arrived they held that and for six hours my father was waiting for the commanders to arrive he remembers saying to uh Lord L uh about Bloody time but L the Aristocrat remembers saying to my father today history is made [Music] [Applause] [Music] love his speech on the 5th of June just before they embarked he said in the 100 years time your children’s children will look back and say they must have been Giants my father was a giant I’m sorry you want to stop there every lucky and love said the look back and say they must have been giants in those p is [Music]

On June 6, 1944, three countries sent the bulk of their troops to land in Normandy: the United States, Britain and Canada. In this report, FRANCE 24’s Claire Paccalin and Florence Gaillard look at how the British forces, who had already endured five years of war before D-Day, showed bravery and flair that were crucial to the success of the operation.
#D-Day #Britain #history

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41 comments

  1. It's more than a little sad that many of us in the UK have listened to our Grandads terrible experiences to liberate Europe. Yet today too many, let's be honest Eurobrats rudely shouting what has Britain done for Europe. At least France remembers.

  2. Regarding Lord Lovat he was commanding the 1st Special Service Brigade one of whose units was No 10 Commando (Inter-Allied) a unit recruited from Free forces from 7 occupied countries. If you watch the film The Longest Day one of its best action scenes is the Free French troop liberating the port of Ouistreham.

  3. These men were not heroes, each and every one of them was a victim of "those in power" their lives were forever changed, some of those who survived would never speak of it again…

    …and end up in poverty and homeless.

    Shameful species, those in power are the real issue!

  4. Richard Todd was a Officer in Pegagus Bridge and see the commandos carry by the bagpiper. In the Operation both Pegagus and Horsa bridges was buy the titles

  9. This is D Day, it is not the time or place to quibble about Scottish independence, keep it for a more appropriate time. Have some respect for those who were there whether they were English, Scots, Welsh or others.

  11. Give us a break, without the US, this would never have happened. And lets not forget that the US had the hardest landings, and the US landed well before the British joined in.

  15. Lord Lovat (Lovat Scouts and SAS) and his good friends David Stirling (SAS) and Fitzroy MacLean (SIS and SAS) were great friends born and brought up in the Scottish Highlands just look these were GIANTS now look at our country!!!

  21. Please let me pick up on the young reporters statement of 2:58 about Diesel fumes, Tanks in 1944 were Petrol Engined, That's were the expression from the Desert Campaign, troops used to pour petrol into sand in a tin, to make fire to make a brew of Tea, The brewing of tea in the British Army, Is Almost but not quite Bushido, But I digress, That is where the expression of a tank, Brewing up came from

  27. And now the Brits are being pushed off the country they fought and died for! They are being invaded by another group who are taking their homes, jobs and traditions away from them with the governments help! The descendants of these men who saved our freedoms are being pushed aside for groups who do not represent the values and morals of these soldiers and have contributed not a bead of blood, sweat and tears for England and Europe!

  31. Lord Lovat deserves more glory than that. His estates trained the Commando Forces and SOE, his gamekeepers taught deer hunting as a basic in sniper skills hunting Germans. They were the ghillies who gave the army ghillie-suits.

  34. No need to cut out the emotional moment’s, they were all giants.
    For those who didn’t make it home, Rest in Peace lad’s. Thank you.

  35. I know the story of the bagpiper and Lord Lovett. The balls the guy had to have to be playing that day. Lovett kept making song requests in the midst of battle. Lord Lovett and Bill were the ones to relieve the troops holding Pegasus bridge. Glad to have had the Brits as allies those years. From ‘a damn Yank’.

  37. Britain was arguably the most crucial allied power in WW2 as Russia would’ve imploded without them and the USA was able to piggy back off of the Brit’s experience, use their island as a joint base and worked well with them and their empire. But the Brit’s with their understated culture never speak up as much for their contribution. So here’s a grateful American cousin saying, thank you to the UK for being the stalwart and stoic heroes in the face of tyranny, who for a time, stood alone against the Nazi war machine.
    And bagpipes and Scotland are awesome
    🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

  38. My old neighbour was in the RN on D-Day as crew for one of those tank landing craft. Said that he dropped some French Canadian tankers off, and remembered one of the poor tanks engulfed in flames after being hit shortly after landing. RIP Harry.

  40. Imagine landing in a glider, in the dark, before the landings had actually begun.

    You and your lads were the only Allied troops on the ground in occupied Europe and if the landings were scrubbed for some reason, you were finished.

    To me it would’ve been absolutely terrifying.

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