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第二次世界大戰英軍瘋狂吹笛手WBM的故事 The Mad Piper Bill Millin

2021/05/15 11:41

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Bill Millin Photo by Entomolo CC BY SA 3.0

WBM.曾經於20100606 D-DAY.重返 Sword Beach 劍灘.演奏進行曲紀念陣亡的官兵弟兄.

Willin began his apparently suicidal serenade immediately upon jumping from the ramp of the landing craft into the icy water. As the Cameron tartan of his kilt floated to the surface he struck up with Hieland Laddie. He continued even as the man behind him was hit, dropped into the sea and sank.

Once ashore Millin did not run, but walked up and down the beach, blasting out a series of tunes. After Hieland Laddie, Lovat, the commander of 1st Special Service Brigade (1 SSB), raised his voice above the crackle of gunfire and the crump of mortar, and asked for another. Millin strode up and down the water’s edge playing The Road to the Isles.

Bodies of the fallen were drifting to and fro in the surf. Soldiers were trying to dig in and, when they heard the pipes, many of them waved and cheered — although one came up to Millin and called him a “mad bastard”.His worst moments were when he was among the wounded. They wanted medical help and were shocked to see this figure strolling up and down playing the bagpipes. To feel so helpless, Millin said afterwards, was horrifying. For many other soldiers, however, the piper provided a unique boost to morale. “I shall never forget hearing the skirl of Bill Millin’s pipes,” said one, Tom Duncan, many years later. “It is hard to describe the impact it had. It gave us a great lift and increased our determination. As well as the pride we felt, it reminded us of home and why we were there fighting for our lives and those of our loved ones.”

When the brigade moved off, Millin was with the group that attacked the rear of Ouistreham. After the capture of the town, he went with Lovat towards Bénouville, piping along the road.

They were very exposed, and were shot at by snipers from across the canal. Millin stopped playing. Everyone threw themselves flat on the ground — apart from Lovat, who went down on one knee. When one of the snipers scrambled down a tree and dived into a cornfield, Lovat stalked him and shot him. He then sent two men into the corn to look for him and they came back with the corpse. “Right, Piper,” said Lovat, “start the pipes again.”

At Bénouville, where they again came under fire, the CO of 6 Commando asked Millin to play them down the main street. He suggested that Millin should run, but the piper insisted on walking and, as he played Blue Bonnets Over the Border, the commandos followed.When they came to the crossing which later became known as Pegasus Bridge, troops on the other side signalled frantically that it was under sniper fire. Lovat ordered Millin to shoulder his bagpipes and play the commandos over. “It seemed like a very long bridge,” Millin said afterwards.The pipes were damaged by shrapnel later that day, but remained playable. Millin was surprised not to have been shot, and he mentioned this to some Germans who had been taken prisoner.

They said that they had not shot at him because they thought he had gone off his head.

Millin, whom Lovat had appointed his personal piper during commando training at Achnacarry, near Fort William in Scotland, was the only man during the landing who wore a kilt – it was the same Cameron tartan kilt his father had worn in Flanders during World War I – and he was armed only with his pipes and the sgian-dubh, or "black knife", sheathed inside his kilt-hose on the right side.^[2]

Lovat and Millin advanced from Sword to Pegasus Bridge, which had been defiantly defended by men of the 2nd Bn the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry (6th Airborne Division) who had landed in the early hours by glider. Lovats commandos arrived at a little past one p.m. at Pegasus Bridge although the rendezvous time in the plan was noon. To the sound of Millins bagpipes, the commandos marched across Pegasus Bridge. During the march, twelve men died, most shot through their berets. Later detachments of the commandos rushed across in small groups with helmets on. Millins D-Day bagpipes were later donated to Dawlish Museum. A set of pipes he used later in the campaign, after the originals became damaged, were donated to the now "Pegasus Bridge Museum".^[^]

.Bill would later serve in operations in Netherland and Germany before being discharged. He worked for some time at Lovat’s estate before becoming a psychiatric nurse in Glasgow.

He visited Normandy several times after his retirement. During Lord Lovat’s funeral, Bill played his bagpipes as a tribute to him.

Bill’s main bagpipe was donated to the Dawlish Museum, while another set of spare pipes he had used later was given to the Pegasus Bridge Museum. Photo by Paul Hermans -CC BY-SA 3.0

WW2.劍灘登陸戰英國士兵WBM.吹奏風笛

"Highland Laddie"進行曲鼓舞士氣向前衝.

第二次世界大戰英國軍隊進行 Sword Beach 劍灘搶灘登陸戰.登陸諾曼第 Normandy Landing 。SWORD，由英國第3步兵師做主力，配合法國、波蘭及挪威部隊，以接近 29,000 兵力,600多輛坦克強攻。主要任務是接應飛馬橋 Pegasus Bridge 英國第6空降師部隊，然後直取城市 Caen。

著名瘋癲蘇格蘭風笛手 William "Bill" Millin ，就是在 Sword Beach 登陸，現海灘旁建有其本人銅像作紀念。
Sword Beach 是5個登陸海灘中面積最小，守軍實力比較簿弱一個，所以經常被人忽視。狹長海灘上,擠滿登陸士兵,在德軍猛烈砲火下,可謂九死一生，少一點勇氣,也不能完成任務。最終登陸聯軍有600多人陣亡，並成功與死守飛馬橋, Pegasus Bridge 英國第6空降師部隊會合，携手攻向內陸。

電影碧血長天 The Longest Day 中有一幕,當英軍於諾曼第搶灘時,一名蘇格蘭風笛手在海灘上吹奏,現實中確有其人,號稱瘋癲風笛手 William "Bill" Millin，分別是他極受歡迎，並不討厭。
1944年6月6日清晨,Bill 隨同英軍第1特別任務旅,在法國諾曼第劍灘 Sword Beach 登陸。在德軍密集砲火下,Bill 滯留水中,未能順利上岸,身邊同袍亦相繼中槍倒下，場面混亂血腥。
雖然有點害怕,但Bill 仍奮勇在水中吹奏曲目 "Highland Laddie",令英軍士氣大振,歡呼聲嚮遍灘頭。指揮官立即大聲命令 BILL 再來一曲,繼續吹奏,不要停止。
於是 Bill 站起來身體筆直,在海邊來回步操,再吹 The Road to the Isles。海灘上英軍馬上伴着風笛聲衝鋒，最後搶灘成功，並順利建立灘頭陣地。其後有生還英兵表示，Bill 奏出救命音符,令登陸大軍士氣高昂,勇往直前。
其後英軍向內陸推進,Bill 一如以往站在最前線, 沿途吹起風笛為部隊領路。

縱使其他隊員頻頻中槍倒地,但 Bill 卻絲毫無損連他自己也感到奇怪。
一日謎底解開，據被俘德軍表示,當他們見到 Bill ,一致認為是瘋漢一名。

而且他身上並無武器,故沒有開槍射擊,Bill 才能保存性命，真是信不信由你。
Bill 於2010年8月17日去世享年88歲。現時在諾曼第劍灘旁建有 Bill 銅像纪念這 D-DAY 神奇一刻他是神奇偉大的戰士......

The D-Day Piping Legend Bill Millin: Did Not Flinch as Snipers Shot at Him, He Kept Playing.

Mortars blasted the day away and hell rained from the sky. The sea quickly took on the color of crimson as the bodies of the fallen floated on all sides.

But he kept pushing on side by side with his leader, wading through the water, along with every other brave soldier who was part of the largest military invasion in history to date.Making it through the deep, cold water, he walked onto the shore as more men fell under heavy gunfire and shelling. He had no guns. He had no grenades.But what he had in his hands turned out to be good enough to help him survive that dreadful day: his bagpipe.William “Bill” Millin was a Scot born on July 14, 1922 in Regina, the capital city of Saskatchewan, Canada. He began to pipe his way to fame after he joined the Territorial Army located at Fort William in the Scottish Highlands.The waves began to grow unstable as they moved beyond the Solent and into the English Channel, and Bill was forced to stop piping.

After hours of sailing in choppy waves, a new day began to set in. The shoreline of Normandy slowly began to appear through the grayness of the budding dawn.

Seasick from the long hours of sailing, Bill was particularly excited about getting ashore, paying no mind to the grave danger that lay just ahead.

Lord Lovat jumped off the craft first, then Bill and the rest joined him in the frigid water. Bill’s kilt floated on the water as the coldness struck him. Right away, they were met by heavy shelling and machine gun fire.

Play again…’Highland Laddie’ and ‘The Road to the Isles,’” Lovat’s order came as he made for the shore. Bodies had begun to fall all over the place, floating on the water. The atmosphere was filled with smoke and screams and ear-splitting blasts.

Bill began to make the bagpipe skirl with haunting tunes of “Highland Laddie” and “The Road to the Isle” filling the deathly air. Some of the soldiers stood still as the songs began to sound in the midst of the chaos, passionately cheering and waving their arms. For a moment they had forgotten that they were in the shadows of death.