The War Office had banned pipers from leading soldiers into battle after losses in the Great War had proved too great. “Ah, but that’s the English War Office,” Lovat told Millin. “You and I are both Scottish and that doesn’t apply.” On D-Day, Millin was the only piper.
“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.”
Priceless…
I am told, by friends who served in a distinguished Highland Regiment, that the CO of 1 Black Watch formed up his pipers at the front of the battle group before going into some fairly hairy bandit country in Iraq.
It had the desired effect.