Rosie the Reviewer Podcast

Who? McGonigal, sir.

Observing D-Day in a big fashion, Lord & Taylor displays a 27 x 40 foot American flag down the front of its building, June 6, 1944. The store closed its doors from 11 a.m. on.

On 17th August 2010 Bill Millin, piper to Lord Lovat at D Day, died, aged 88.

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 sheathed inside his kilt-hose on the right side.

Taken from accounts of 6th June 1944 on Sword Beach Normandy.

Bill began his apparently suicidal serenade immediately upon jumping from the ramp of the landing craft into the icy water on D Day. 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.

“On September 27 and October 2, I felt for the first time that I might finish my tour. We bombed harbor installations at Emden, and our fighter escort went with us all the way. We saw them out there, those sleek, fast Mustangs with auxiliary gas tanks fixed to their wings. When our Little Friends dropped their wing tanks, we knew they saw bogeys.”

I love you so much. And I hate this war so much. Oh, it’s a crazy world.

🇺🇸 Henry Fonda ~ born May 16, 1905 in Grand Island, Nebraska

Fonda served in the military during World War II for the United States Navy during the height of his career. He was 37.

He joined as an enlisted man (Quartermaster Third Class) on the destroyer USS Satterlee, providing fire support for the Allied troops during the Normandy invasion.

In the Pacific Theater he applied to become an officer and was commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade. He served as an Air Combat Intelligence Officer in the Central Pacific, helping plan operations for the Marianas, Western Carolines, and Iwo Jima campaigns.

He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and a Navy Presidential Unit Citation for his meritorious service.

"Unsinkable Sam" was the nickname given to this cat, who was actually named Oscar. He started as a ship's cat aboard the Nazi ship Bismarck, which was sunk by the British ship HMS Cossack in 1941. The British crew found the cat floating on a board hours after the ship sank, took him aboard, and named him Oscar.

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