![]() ![]() The Calgary Highlanders had company pipers play during the unit's first battle in Normandy in July 1944, but likewise refrained from using pipers again for the rest of the war. At Lovat's request he marched up and down the beach playing his pipes under fire. Bill Millin, the personal piper of Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, was at the landing of 1st Special Service Brigade at Sword Beach on 6 June 1944 in Normandy. Although the attack was successful, losses among the pipers were high, and they were not used in combat again during the war. Each attacking company was led by a piper, playing tunes that would allow other units to recognise which Highland regiment they belonged to. The custom was revived by the 51st Highland Division for their assault on the enemy lines at the start of the Second Battle of El Alamein on 23 October 1943. Although the early history of pipers within these regiments is not well documented, there is evidence that these regiments had pipers at an early stage and there are numerous accounts of pipers playing into battle during the 19th century, a practice which continued into World War I when it was abandoned after the early battles, due to the high casualty rate. It was soon realised that Highlanders made excellent troops and a number of regiments were raised from the Highlands over the second half of the eighteenth century. However, the loss of the clan chief's power and patronage and widespread emigration did contribute to its decline. In 1746, after the forces loyal to the Hanoverian government had defeated the Jacobites in the Battle of Culloden, King George II attempted to assimilate the Highlands into Great Britain by weakening Gaelic culture and the Scottish clan system, though the oft-repeated claim that the Act of Proscription 1746 banned the Highland bagpipes is not substantiated by the text itself, nor by any record of any prosecutions under this act for playing or owning bagpipes. These references may be considered evidence as to the existence of particularly Scottish bagpipes, but evidence of a form peculiar to the Highlands appears in a poem written in 1598 and later published in The Complaynt of Scotland which refers to several types of pipe, including the Highland: "On hieland pipes, Scotte and Hybernicke / Let heir be shraichs of deadlie clarions." However, textual evidence for Scottish bagpipes is more definite in 1396, when records of the Battle of the North Inch of Perth reference "warpipes" being carried into battle. There are many ancient legends and stories about bagpipes which were passed down through minstrels and oral tradition, whose origins are now lost. One clan still owns a remnant of a set of bagpipes said to have been carried at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, though the veracity of this claim is debated. Though popular belief sets varying dates for the introduction of bagpipes to Scotland, concrete evidence is limited until approximately the 15th century. Though widely famous for its role in military and civilian pipe bands, the great Highland bagpipe is also used for a solo virtuosic style called pìobaireachd, ceòl mòr, or simply pibroch. The earliest references to bagpipes in Scotland are in a military context, and it is in that context that the great Highland bagpipe became established in the British military and achieved the widespread prominence it enjoys today, whereas other bagpipe traditions throughout Europe, ranging from Portugal to Russia, almost universally went into decline by the late 19th and early 20th century. The bagpipe is first attested in Scotland around 1400, having previously appeared in European artwork in Spain in the 13th century. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British military and in pipe bands throughout the world. 'the great pipe') is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland, and the Scottish analogue to the great Irish warpipes. The great Highland bagpipe ( Scottish Gaelic: a' phìob mhòr pronounced lit. A pipe major of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (date unknown) Piper Bill Millin playing the bagpipes 1944 Led by their piper, men of the 7th Seaforth Highlanders, 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division advance during Operation Epsom, 26 June 1944. ![]()
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