Why German snipers spared the life of British soldier who played bagpipes on D-Day beaches

A 21-year-old lived to tell the tale after landing in Normandy on D-Day 80 years ago armed only with a ceremonial dagger and a set of bagpipes.

Bill Millin stepped off his landing craft on that fateful day wearing his dad's First World War kilt and bravely roused his comrades with traditional music as gunfire and explosions rang out all around them.

The June 6, 1944, Allied invasion punched through Adolf Hitler’s western defenses and helped precipitate Nazi Germany’s surrender 11 months later, but it claimed the lives of some 2,500 troops.

Millin somehow survived the hail of bullets, as he blasted out The Road To The Isles, a plaintive tune about the hills of Skye.

German snipers later said they avoided shooting him as they thought he had gone mad.

The story of the "Mad Piper" has gone on to become an enduring symbol of the bravery shown by the allied soldiers that day, and a life-size statue was subsequently installed near the spot where he went ashore.

Speaking to Sky News, Millin's grandson Jacob said: "The life I live is because of my grandfather's generation."

Millin faced some resistance to the idea of playing during the assault, with military chiefs worried about the potentially high death toll.

He was the personal piper to Lord Lovat, the eccentric commander of the 1st Special Service Brigade which landed at Sword Beach, who asked him to play the pipes.

When Millin reminded him of the rules against it, Lord Lovat is said to have replied: "Ah, but that's the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn't apply."

Millin returned to the historic site for key commemorations and in 1994 had a moving reunion with Josette Gouellain, whom he played a tune for fifty years earlier when she was a child.

With permission from Lovat, Millin had stopped to play her The Nut Brown Maiden, in reference to the colour of her hair and eyes, and gave a rendition of the lament at his former commander's funeral in 1995.

Millin himself died in 2015.

His grandson Jacob is a teacher and passes on the stories of D-Day to his students so the sacrifices made by Millin's generation aren't forgotten.

"For them, looking at old people, they might be a bit slower or not as quick, but actually some of the people they walk past in the streets were actual veterans who have seen active service or were involved in codebreaking," he told the outlet.

"I can't imagine when I was 21 being on the beach with people shooting and seeing my friends die in front of me."

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said those who fought on that day "changed the course of history."

“Their daring landings, the scale of which the world has never seen before or after, began the march to victory for the allied forces of freedom against the tyranny that had engulfed Europe," he said.

“Because of their historic service we are able to come together as a free nation to commemorate D-Day with pride,” Sunak added.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "We will commemorate their courage, we will honour their fallen comrades and we will ensure that their story is never forgotten.

“Our debt to them can never repaid in full. But we can – and must – honour their sacrifice. This goes beyond party politics.

"This is about who we are as a nation. This is our story, our history, our identity – and our future together.”