Piper Bill Millin statue, Colleville-Montgomery, Normandy. On D day, june 6th 1944, on the sector of "Sword Beach", as the Scots have done for generations, the brigadier Lord Lovat, chief of the 1st Special Service Brigade, and also a Highlands chief, ordered his personal piper, Bill Millin, to pipe his commandos ashore. Above the roar of battle came the skirl of liberation with a piper leading the way. They both entered the legend.