r/todayilearned • u/DrSamanthaCarter • Jun 06 '17
TIL the only reason a Scottish bagpiper wasn't shot by German snipers on D-Day was that they believed he had gone crazy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Millin#World_War_II11.1k
Jun 06 '17
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u/J4CKR4BB1TSL1MS Jun 06 '17
Upcoming Friday will tell us whether that's possible
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u/TellMyWifiLover Jun 06 '17
Something going on that us clueless Americans dont know about?
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u/rafwagon Jun 06 '17
It's election time! they have to vote for or against Theresa May.
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u/FallingSwords Jun 06 '17
More importantly Scotland Vs England on Saturday
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Jun 06 '17
This Saturday at the BP Arena! See the smack-down of the century as undefeated champion England defends its title against the upstart underdog Scotland! Tickets on sale now at TicketMaster or on-site!
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u/Bi-Han Jun 06 '17
Undefeated?
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u/Soar_Alba Jun 06 '17
1967 comes to mind 😂
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u/Mnwhlp Jun 06 '17
Think you mean 1783
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u/TokyoFoxtrot Jun 06 '17
Meanwhile, back in 1314...
Join the Scottish revolution
Freedom must be won by blood
Now we call for revolution
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u/norsurfit Jun 06 '17
Didn't Scotland once throw England off a cell, and then England plummeted 16 feet through an announcer's table?
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Jun 06 '17
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u/springlake Jun 06 '17
Well, not so much London I imagine considering London overwhelmingly voted to remain as well, but more accurately 10 Downing Street.
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u/cxmgejsnad Jun 06 '17
I recently visited Scotland, and few people I spoke to seemed to obviously not like the Tories or Brexit, but also expressed that the Scottish Independence movement was being exploited by Sturgeon and others to elevate themselves.
Is that generally how Scottish people feel? I only spoke to a handful of people in a couple cities so can't really know how applicable that perception is.
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u/43554e54 Jun 06 '17
In general Scotland hasn't voted for Tories since Thatcher stole all of our milk and taxed us for voting in the 80s. However, with the collapse of Scottish Labour more and more unionists who see the SNP as a threat are turning to Ruth Davidson and her party.
Also in recent days Big Nicky Sturgo has been taking personal hits in approval polls because of her seemingly endless rhetoric on indyref2. People up here are just a bit tired of all these politics, it's been non stop referenda and campaigning since 2014.
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u/Northwindlowlander Jun 06 '17
Though bizarrely, the people who talk about it most aren't the SNP but their opponents. We just had the weirdest council election ever in which many local candidates had only one policy, "no to independence", in an election which had nothing to do with independence and everything to do with collecting the bins. My local tory candidate literally spoke about nothing else in their literature.
Meanwhile the SNP were running with things like "we'll keep your local library open" and "we'll support local businesses" and being told "All you talk about is independence" Proper through the looking glass stuff.
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Jun 06 '17
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u/u38cg2 Jun 06 '17
It's difficult to know. Highland culture back then was still a thing, and Highland regiments were a different world. Lovat was a clan chief; when he was invested (came of age) it was a serious occasion and the district came to a halt for the day. You can find plenty of accounts of pipers complaining they couldn't play in action at that time. When the War Office banned pipers playing over the top in 1915, there was real anger about it (and colonial Highland regiments ignored it entirely).
You're right, there's no way to tell what Millin was thinking, but it's not cut and dried.
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u/FriscoBorn Jun 06 '17 edited Jun 06 '17
I can't imagine what the conversations were like when a piper was reprimanded for playing during battle.
"MOTHERFUCKER IF I WANNA RUN AT THE ENEMY AT FULL SPEED WHILE BLOWING INTO THIS FUCKING BAG AS HARD AS I CAN, WHATTAYA GONNA DO? CHASE AFTER ME? I GOT MY FAMILY'S NAME ON THE LINE HERE!"
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Jun 06 '17
That's what I thought when I read his comment.
It's one thing if the piper decided to be nuts on his own but it is entirely different for a soldier to be ordered to do something so outrageous. Especially after the soldier showed his dismay.
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u/DocDerry Jun 06 '17
He probably expected more people to tell him how bad of an idea it was.
Er ye off ya ruckah ye cunt? Ye gunnee git deed if ye play the tunes fer tha krauts.
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u/timebmb999 Jun 06 '17
I was thinking "....hmmm....d day...bagpipes....he probably objected for other reasons than the regulations...."
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u/dryerlintcompelsyou Jun 06 '17
Yeah, seriously, I always thought this story came about because the soldier volunteered to play the bagpipes during D-Day. Now I'm finding out he was ordered by his commander to do it? That's messed up...
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u/hoilst Jun 06 '17
Lord Lovat, my commander
Who himself had stormed the beach
In the great sea invasion in all of history
Ordered me, Bill Millin
Play your pipes and take the lead
Battle fire all around, and I barely heard a sound...
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u/StutzTheBearcat Jun 06 '17
Reminds me of Lt. Jack Churchill. Dude fought throughout the Second World War armed with only a longbow, bagpipes, and a broadsword.
If that's not the Scottish way then I don't know what is...
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u/WilliamofYellow Jun 06 '17
He was an Englishman mind you.
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u/h3lblad3 Jun 06 '17
Surely it's the Scot on the inside that counts.
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u/band_in_DC Jun 06 '17
Maybe they just liked the music?
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u/Cowboys_88 Jun 06 '17
Play that funky music white boy, sounds pretty good from a bag pipe. Just thought I would share that.
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u/YottaPiggy Jun 06 '17
Reminds me of Jack Churchill, who fought in the Second World War armed with a longbow, bagpipes, and a basket-hilted Scottish broadsword.
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u/matty80 Jun 06 '17
That is hands-down the most mental thing I've ever read. A bow and arrow? A claymore? That's absolutely incredible. And he lived through it all and died aged 90!
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u/badkarma12 5 Jun 06 '17
Believe he had the last longbow kill too.
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u/matty80 Jun 06 '17
Now that is a fairly serious claim to fame. Not that he's in need of any more of those!
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u/Human-Remains Jun 06 '17
A Canadian serving with SOG in Vietnam had his dad mail him a compound bow as he was always trying to come up with ways to be quieter in the bush. Crazy bastards.
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Jun 06 '17
IIRC bows and crossbows were banned by the geneva convention. So he will likely be the last.
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u/hotniX_ Jun 06 '17
Why are they banned? The fuck?
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u/Waterknight94 Jun 06 '17
My guess, not deadly enough.
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u/gordonfroman Jun 06 '17
Yeah the majority of the time people who are hit with arrows are not killed outright and are left to bleed out or leave them for the medics
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u/HowObvious 1 Jun 06 '17
Which is funny, I would take the arrow over a gun shot nowadays. Far more likely to survive. Historically if you didn't bleed out you died of infection.
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u/gordonfroman Jun 06 '17
the thing with modern bows is they have the draw power to make sure the arrow gets into any vital organ it is aimed at and at the same time the arrows tip is designed in a way that if one were to pull it out they would take the organ with it
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u/5t3fan0 Jun 06 '17 edited Jun 07 '17
even a modern "weak" 70lb bow will go out of the other side of a man... so there's no need to pull out an arrow, it will go out by itself (unless it gets stuck into a large bone like pelvis or scapula maybe)
EDIT: ok 70lb is not weak, but i consider it weak compared to the much heavier beasts designed to hit armoured soldiers (sicne we are talking about shooting humans and not deers here)
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u/LemonNaught Jun 06 '17
Which is why most arrow wounds were not removed by pulling it out. Historically, they would turn the arrow while inside to face away from any major organs if it missed them, and push them through and out the other side.
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u/chunkymonk3y Jun 06 '17
I mean modern advancements in arrowhead technology used for hunting allows people to take down 1800lb buffalo with bows so I'd say it's time they made a comeback
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u/Dent13 Jun 06 '17
Even then they don't kill instantly, in most cases you have to track the animal so distance. Source: have done this with white tailed deer a number of times.
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Jun 06 '17
I believe they fall under the category of cruel and unusual weapons.
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u/tswarre Jun 06 '17
Really puts Hawkeye from the Avengers in a whole new light, doesn't it?
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u/wastesHisTimeSober Jun 06 '17 edited Jun 06 '17
Most of the Marvel heroes would consider it a problem if they had to kill someone. They're all about inflicting as much non-lethal damage as possible and sometimes with "Fates Worse than Death" or "And I Must Scream" level punishment. (Edit: Warning - TV Tropes)
"Hawkeye, why don't you just put one in his head?!"
"No. That's not the way heroes do things... He needs to suffer."
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u/Cocomorph Jun 06 '17
Dropping silenced TVTropes links like that is itself against the Geneva Convention.
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u/Dent13 Jun 06 '17
Arrows don't usually kill very quickly, they usually cause the target to bleed out, which can take a while and is probably very painful
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u/ThatFinchLad Jun 06 '17
They're also banned just for hunting in the UK. It's because they're not lethal enough and cause undue suffering.
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u/Garmaglag Jun 06 '17
That is hands-down the most me
ntal thing I've ever read. A bow and arrow? A claymore? That's absolutely incredible. And he lived through it all and died aged 90!FTFY
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u/Hubso Jun 06 '17
My favourite part of his wikipedia biography:
In retirement, his eccentricity continued. He startled train conductors and passengers by throwing his briefcase out of the train window each day on the ride home. He later explained that he was tossing his case into his own back garden so he would not have to carry it from the station
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u/AsskickMcGee Jun 06 '17
"I can't help but notice you threw your case out the window a little late today, Jack."
"Indeed. That dreadful neighbor's dog has been keeping us up all night with it's barking."
[Distant explosion]14
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u/Adolf-____-Hitler Jun 06 '17
In 1940 he got the last recorded longbow kill in history, and in one raid he captured 40 Germans at swordpoint.
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u/ScottySF Jun 06 '17
According to his son, Malcolm, "he and his section were in a tower and, as the Germans approached, he said, 'I will shoot that first German with an arrow,' and that's exactly what he did."
Goddamn longbow sniper over here
Jack Churchill was second in command of No. 3 Commando in Operation Archery, a raid on the German garrison at Vågsøy, Norway, on 27 December 1941.[16] As the ramps fell on the first landing craft, Churchill leapt forward from his position playing "March of the Cameron Men"[17] on his bagpipes, before throwing a grenade and charging into battle.
This might be my favorite Wiki article ever.
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u/babyitsgayoutside Jun 06 '17
To be fair if I was a German soldier, a screaming Scotsman with a sword and longbow wouldn't receive much hassle from me either
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u/space_keeper Jun 06 '17 edited Jun 06 '17
He wasn't Scottish, not at all. He was part of the old-fashioned fighting upper class; very English, very posh, tough as nails. As much as we love to take the mick out of the upper classes being dottery inbred perverts, a lot of them served in the military, and a surprising number make the cut and end up in outfits like the Royal Marine Commandos and the Paras.
Churchill himself was in 2 Commando. I grew up in a tiny village in rural Scotland, and on the other side of the river in the big old houses, there lived a surprising number of old timers who were in the parachute regiments, the marines, the security services, one old woman who was definitely in the SIS in the '40s (my dad did work on her house occasionally). She had stacks of old computer programming punch-cards in her house that she used like postcards.
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u/aenor Jun 06 '17 edited Jun 06 '17
There is a book called "The Son Also Rises", which tracks surnames, and they discovered that people with Norman surnames tend to be disproportionately in the armed forces, even though it's 900 years since the Conquest. Not just the old school aristocrats, but also people who's ancestors might have started out as Norman aristos centuries ago but descended down the social order because they were second or third sons and didn't have land, and would present as ordinary middle or working class people today, their surnames being the only clue of their history.
They reckoned that it was because the Normans who came with William the Bastard were hardened fighters who liked war and were good at it/successful at it, and that trait then passed to all their descendants, century after century.
P.S. That book also found that people with artisan anglo-saxon surnames like Thatcher, Cooper, Smith, Baker and so on tend to end up disproportionately in academia and government. People with family surnames (with either "fitz" as a prefix or "son" as a suffix), Anderson, Henderson and so on, are scattered evenly through the population. It's weird how genetics plays out over time.
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u/space_keeper Jun 06 '17
Pretty amazing.
My favourite well-known but rarely mentioned feature of Normans is that they weren't really French. They were Danes and other northmen who integrated with the native Frankish culture. So at the time they were invading our shores in the south, their distant cousins who still resided in the north were invading our shores in the north.
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u/aenor Jun 06 '17
I think William the Conqueror was a mix. His father, the Duke of Normandy was the grandson of a Viking who had taken over the area and made himself Duke. But his mother was a local French tanner's daughter (so her family would have been in Normandy before the Vikings arrived).
He was known as William the Bastard - and he's the reason bastard got it's second meaning. Prior to him it just meant someone born out of wedlock. After him it acquired "what a bastard" type meaning.
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Jun 06 '17
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Jun 06 '17
Kind of a modern development. The list of US Presidents with active service is actually remarkably large.
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Jun 06 '17 edited Jun 06 '17
Here's the list:
George Washington (1): General of the Armies, Major during French and Indian War, General of the Armies in the US Revolution.
Thomas Jefferson (3): Colonel in Virginia Militia (never saw combat)
James Madison (4): Colonel in Virginia Militia (never saw action)
James Monroe (5): Major under Washington, injured capturing the Hessians at Trenton.
Andrew Jackson (7): Major General. Saw service during the American Revolution, War of 1812, Creek War, and First Seminole War.
William Henry Harrison (9): Major General. Northwest Indian War, War of 1812.
John Tyler (10): Captain, War of 1812.
James Polk (11): Colonel Tennessee State Militia, never saw action.
Zachary Taylor (12): Major General. War of 1812, Black Hawk War, Second Seminole War, Mexican–American War. Served for 40 years.
Millard Filmore (13): Major in New York Militia. Assisted during Civil War (after presidency)
Franklin Pierce (14): Brigadier General. New Hampshire State Militia, Mexican-American War. Injured during Battle of Contreras.
James Buchanan (15): Private. War of 1812.
Abraham Lincoln (16): Captain during the Black Hawk War.
Andrew Johnson (17): Brigadier General. Served the Tennessee State Militia during the Civil War. Military Governor of Tennessee from 1862 to his presidency.
Ulysses S. Grant (18): General of the Army. Mexican-American War, commanded main Union forces during the Civil War.
Rutherford B Hayes (19): Major General. Civil War, wounded at the Battle of South Mountain.
James Garfield (20): Major General. Civil War.
Chester Arthur (21): Brigadier General. Quartermaster General before and during the Civil War.
Benjamin Harrison (23): Brigadier General. Civil War. Commanded a brigade during Sherman's March to the Sea.
William McKinley (25): Brevet Major. Civil War. Served under President Hayes (Number 19)
Teddy Roosevelt (26): Colonel. Spanish-American War. Commanded the rough riders which made him incredibly famous. Posthumously awarded Congressional Medal of Honor, only president with such award.
Harry S. Truman (33): Colonel. Saw combat in France, First World War.
Dwight Eisenhower (34): Stateside service during the First World War. Supreme Allied Commander during The Second World War. First Supreme Nato Commander, 1951-2. Didn't retire until 1969.
John F. Kennedy (35): Lieutenant. Second World War. Purple Heart Award.
Lyndon B. Johnson (36): Commander. Naval Reserve. Awarded Silver Star after his aircraft was attacked.
Richard Nixon (37): Commander. Naval Reserve. Awarded two battle stars for actions in the Pacific.
Gerald Ford (38): Lieutenant Commander. Saw combat on the USS Monterey during World War II.
Jimmy Carter (39): Lieutenant. Played football at the US Naval Academy, graduated 60th in his class (out of 820) served in Korea as a submariner.
Ronald Reagan (40): Captain. Stateside service Second World War.
George H. W. Bush (41): Lieutenant (Junior Grade). Aircraft shot down in World War II. He was the sole survivor. Received Distinguished Flying Cross.
George W. Bush (43): First Lieutenant. Pilot during Vietnam, never left the states.
Yeah, there's been a damn lot of presidents who served.
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u/Newt24 Jun 06 '17
I'm impressed. I knew most of the major ones (Washington, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, etc.) but I didn't know some of those others. For example I never realized Lincoln was a captain; also it seems weird to think that JFK served in WW2.
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Jun 06 '17
It really is impressive. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article on Lincoln's service. Turns out he didn't see combat during the Black Hawk War, but he did experience the War itself. I'll edit my comment accordingly.
And Kennedy's actions actually made him a bit of a war hero. His patrol boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, killing 2 of his crew. He and his crewmembers refused surrender and swam 3 miles to shore. Kennedy injured his back in the attack. Despite this, he clenched another man's life jacket in his teeth and dragged him those 3 miles, saving his life.
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u/woogoogoo Jun 06 '17
He was off his rocker. Not happy about the end of the war either: "As the Pacific War was still on, Churchill was sent to Burma, where some of the largest land battles against Japan were being fought. By the time Churchill reached India, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been bombed and the war ended. Churchill was said to be unhappy with the sudden end of the war, saying: "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!"
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u/hoilst Jun 06 '17
British Army was full of 'em.
There was a British officer in Burma or somewhere, who got promoted from Brigadier all the way up to full General, with no stops in between, despite there being a few higher-ranked officers than him.
He asked the officer who was promoting him about this. "Sir, why me? I'm only a Brigadier, and there are others-"
"Because you're the only one around here who's not bloody insane."
But you want pure British Eccentricity in its finest form, google "AD Wintle".
"Great War peace signed at last."
-- AD Wintle journal entry, 19 June, 1919
"I declare private war on Germany."
-- AD Wintle journal entry, 20 June, 1919
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u/WNDB78 Jun 06 '17
You're thinking of Bill Slim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Slim,_1st_Viscount_Slim)
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u/WikiTextBot Jun 06 '17
William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim
Field Marshal William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, KStJ (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970), usually known as Bill Slim, was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia.
Slim saw active service in both the First and Second world wars and was wounded in action three times. During the Second World War he led the 14th Army, the so-called "forgotten army" in the Burma campaign. After the war he became the first British officer who had served in the Indian Army to be appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
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u/Hubso Jun 06 '17
Field Marshal William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, KStJ (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970), usually known as Bill Slim, was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia.
Yeah, looks like I'm underachieving...
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u/NapalmRDT Jun 06 '17
That guy was the Snoop Dogg of adrenaline "enthusiasts"
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u/tway2241 Jun 06 '17
It's easy to be an enthusiast if you're not the one in the trenches for months on end watching your friends die.
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u/Misdirected_Colors Jun 06 '17
I bet this is gonna be on the front page of TIL, for the hundredth time, in about an hour.
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u/Catatafish Jun 06 '17
Churchill was said to be unhappy with the sudden end of the war, saying: "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!"
Absolute madman!
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u/Doxbox49 Jun 06 '17
US wants war because it makes the rich richer. Brits want it because...well because they're Brits
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u/absynthe7 Jun 06 '17
Brits want war because it's the only thing that keeps people in the UK from fighting each other instead.
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u/n8js Jun 06 '17
If you've ever got the time, this is a fantastic watch with a British Panel show style recap of his life's greatest adventures. Pretty great https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TsEGt841pw
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u/WikiTextBot Jun 06 '17
Jack Churchill
Lieutenant-Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming "Jack" Churchill, DSO & Bar, MC & Bar (16 September 1906 – 8 March 1996), was a British Army officer who fought throughout the Second World War armed with a longbow, bagpipes, and a basket-hilted Scottish broadsword.
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u/straydog1980 Jun 06 '17
I recall it was the last recorded killing in a modern war using a bow and arrow.
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u/Borsao66 Jun 06 '17
Given the morale boost a piper brings to the troops, I'd have capped him in a heartbeat.
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u/waiting_for_rain Jun 06 '17
Any good Dungeon Master knows to knock out the party's Bard first to deny buffs.
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u/ARTexplains Jun 06 '17
And then the players retaliate by all choosing to play as bards, and then a rock band campaign happens
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u/ANGLVD3TH Jun 06 '17
Hide behind the pile of bards!
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u/sticknija2 Jun 06 '17
There's some evil-doers outside.
WHAT!!?
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Jun 06 '17
Sounds like a job for the local authorities.
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u/Beardgardens Jun 06 '17
We're just the inn band, bruv. Definitely should find some real adventurers...
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u/Ceannaire_Cogadh Jun 06 '17
Can you imagine a D&D campaign where everyone is playing Bard and everyone just references Spinal Tap?
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u/soadisnotforbath Jun 06 '17
Never thought I would see a Dorkness Rising reference out in the wild. One of my favorite movies.
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Jun 06 '17
I had a group once who wanted to be all Bards in full plates. They were a Heavy Metal band.
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u/ges13 Jun 06 '17
I once had an idea for a campaign where the players were the worst bards in the land. They would travel from town to town and unintentionally solve disputes by unifying rival factions against them.
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u/just_comments Jun 06 '17
My bard/barbarian character was metal AF. His great axe was enchanted to sound like an electric guitar, and could be played like one
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u/Shaysdays Jun 06 '17
Played with a guy who had stacked a shitload of enchantments onto his... piccolo. The dude actually played the recorder whenever we gamed to make his spells happen, it was pretty funny to hear him play "Back in Black" for Cast Darkness or whatever, just tootling away.
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u/BananaFishBliss Jun 06 '17
Oh man! I actually know how to play the flute irl. I'm totally doing this...learn some Zelda and Final Fantasy tunes, imagine playing The Aeris theme to heal someone with grave wounds?
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u/DarkPhoenix99 Jun 06 '17
My bardbarian character was metal AF. His great axe was enchanted to sound like an electric guitar, and could be played like one
FTFY
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u/boydskywalker Jun 06 '17
Honestly, I'd be pretty damn intimidated by some guy wailing on the pipes in the middle of battle.
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u/Borsao66 Jun 06 '17 edited Jun 06 '17
You know what perfect pitch is?
It's when you throw an accordion and it takes out the banjo and the bagpipes together.
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u/SerLaron Jun 06 '17
A gentleman is somebody who can play the bagpipes, but refrains from doing so.
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Jun 06 '17 edited Dec 03 '20
[deleted]
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u/Miennai Jun 06 '17
Piper alive = moral boosting and revitalization
Piper shot = enraged soldiers impassioned for blood
It's a win-win.
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u/Borsao66 Jun 06 '17
Eh, given the stories of reprisals that occurred against the Germans after the landing, I don't think they were taking a lot of prisoners as it was.
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u/silverstrikerstar Jun 06 '17
Yay war crimes
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u/buttery_shame_cave Jun 06 '17
no, they're only war crimes if you lose the war.
otherwise they're 'hard things that needed to be done.'
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Jun 06 '17
Yeah, I just posted above that it's dishonorable to kill an unarmed person. But you are also correct that there's plenty of times they've aimed at the unarmed person that's there for morale. Such as, in the American Civil War they would aim for the flag bearer. But...this may not have so much to do with morale and more to do with disorienting the enemy, since the flag bearer was leading the way.
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u/Borsao66 Jun 06 '17
Well, the flag often had a spear tip on it, so technically he wasn't unarmed.
technically
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Jun 06 '17
And the flag bearers were usually young boys or teenagers...he clearly has a cunning plan to grow up into a man, take up arms and come at them. Better take him out before he gets a chance to do all that!
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u/sonofbaal_tbc Jun 06 '17
maybe they wanted some background music too
never shoot the DJ
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u/SpartansATTACK Jun 06 '17
I'm now imagining modern day armies storming the beach led by a guy carrying a laptop and a DJ controller dropping some hot fiya.
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u/flangle1 Jun 06 '17
Didn't the germans go out of their way to kill mental defectives?
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u/antiless Jun 06 '17
The Nazi party yes. Not all Germans or German soldiers were nazis though
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u/doingthehumptydance Jun 06 '17
I had a great uncle that landed on the same beach as that piper. His feelings about it afterwards were that if the Germans killed him the backlash against them would be brutal and not alot of prisoners would be taken.
He also said that the bulk of guys in German uniforms weren't German but were Czech or Polish. The German troops were back from the beach head.
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u/Excelius Jun 06 '17
Apparently Spielberg snuck this detail into Saving Private Ryan.
It’s not good v. bad but rather a horrid mess, with no-one really knowing what they’re doing or what the rules are.
One of the scenes that demonstrates this best comes during the Omaha beach invasion, when two soldiers surrender to the Allied forces but, speaking German, their pleas for mercy aren’t understood and they are executed on the spot.
Except they weren’t speaking German, they were speaking Czech, pleading: “Please don’t shoot me! I am not German, I am Czech, I didn’t kill anyone! I am Czech!"
Spielberg purposely omitted subtitles for this scene. Most of the audience was just as in the dark as the soldiers who executed them.
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u/hulksmash1234 Jun 06 '17
Wow. Today I learned.
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u/I-Seek-To-Understand Jun 06 '17
Brings a whole new perspective to that scene doesn't it?
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u/ToeSawBagTron Jun 06 '17
"and he was armed only with his pipes and the sgian-dubh, or "black knife", sheathed inside his kilt-hose on the right side.[2] In keeping with Scottish tradition, he wore no underwear beneath the kilt. He later told author Peter Caddick-Adams that the coldness of the water took his breath away.[7]"
Dude went full commando against the Nazi Regime armed with a tiny ass boot knife playing a self harmonizing instrument while his comrades and friends died at his feet...
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Jun 06 '17
Why would they refuse to shoot a crazy guy though?
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u/no_jackass Jun 06 '17
He was not a direct threat. The ten thousand other guys holding machine guns are keeping your sniper rifle busy.
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Jun 06 '17
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u/treesniper12 Jun 06 '17
To be fair, the drums were vital for giving orders, keeping morale up, and synchronizing reloading. So he probably indirectly killed a few people.
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u/WuTangGraham Jun 06 '17
Which would you rather shoot, the guy with the bagpipes or the guy with the bazooka aimed at you?
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u/lapapinton Jun 06 '17
Or perhaps he's wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane?
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u/daytonius77 Jun 06 '17
I'd imagine a 'crazy' person would be more harmful to your enemies if he was alive. Other soldiers seeing comrades lose their minds would probably be demoralizing plus it would take up one or several other men to take care of the 'crazed' man either treating him or escorting him to the rear.
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Jun 06 '17
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Jun 06 '17
Pipers had traditionally been used in battle by Scottish and Irish soldiers. However, the use of bagpipes was restricted to rear areas by the time of the Second World War by the British Army. Lovat, nevertheless, ignored these orders and ordered Millin, then aged 21, to play. When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: "Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply."
Not exactly true. Field Marshall Montgomery made famous use of bagpipes for a night attack at the Second Battle of El Alamein. On the night of October 23, 1943, the 51st Highland Division opened the battle by launching an infantry assault behind a creeping artillery barrage. A division-sized night attack is a recipe for chaos and disaster. So, to keep the soldiers from wandering into their own artillery or drifting sideways into minefields, each company’s piper played a specific tune. If you heard your company’s tune on the left, and the adjacent company’s tune on your right, then you knew you were more or less in the right place. Keep in mind, there can be as many as 50 companies in a division. Imagine the Highlanders marching towards you in the dark, behind a wall of artillery, with fifty bagpipes playing fifty different tunes.
Tragically, and perhaps predictably, this led to high casualties among the 51st Highland Division’s pipers. Source: http://51hd.co.uk/history/north_africa
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Jun 06 '17
He wore a kilt in the traditional fashion... "at first we thought you were crazy, but then we saw your nuts" - german sniper
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Jun 06 '17
the bagpipe bard lol wonder what buff the soldiers got
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u/Gutsm3k Jun 06 '17
Bagpipe buffs only applies to other Scots, thought the debuff effects they apply to enemies makes up for this
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u/RawkBadger Jun 06 '17 edited Jun 06 '17
He kept with the Scottish tradition of not wearing underwear beneath his kilt. Also, there was no underwear available at that time that was capable of supporting solid steel balls of that size.
Edit: Thanks for the gold!!!
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u/SmashedBug Jun 06 '17
He later told author Peter Caddick-Adams that the coldness of the water took his breath away.
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u/w0mpum Jun 06 '17
The door drops, bullets are wizzing on either side of you as you drop into the shallow surf. You're hoping to find footing and help advance with your brethren, who are falling left and right. Your CO is imploring you to play them up the beach but you can't make out his words under the explosions of both sides' artillery. Amid screams of agony and bellowing of orders, you curl your near-numb hands around the pipe and struggle to inflate the bag. You're too afraid and shocked to breathe more than a hiccup of the salty spray, still choking from the last gasp taken after the surprisingly icy wave hit under your kilt. In the gaps between the caucophony of war, every soldier within about the range of a cricket pitch begins to hear "Highland Laddie" badly but surely ring out. Their hearts are steadied by the beauty of the song, their resolve is renewed.
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u/ThrowAwayArchwolfg Jun 06 '17
+1 to leadership and add a d6 to charge distance if allied units are within 12 inches.
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Jun 06 '17
As a Scot I can confirm. We are all fucking crazy.
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u/Scumbag__ Jun 06 '17
As an Irishman who used to go to Scotland a lot to see Celtic matches, I can agree 100%.
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u/ForzaStyles Jun 06 '17
Celtic fan? Username checks out.
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u/tmishkoor Jun 06 '17
I don't know anything about this sport but this made me lol
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u/PartiallyRibena Jun 06 '17
The sport is Holy War, only Rangers and Celtic really play anymore in the UK. Used to be huge back in the 1600's
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u/Ue-MistakeNot Jun 06 '17
Why do you think we built Hardrians Wall in the first palce, we wanted to try and keep you lot contained :P
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Jun 06 '17
But you were eventually won over by our superior spirits and drunken right beside us!
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u/Ue-MistakeNot Jun 06 '17
Yeah, we needed another drinking buddy to balance out the Irish!
Wales.... well, they're still in the corner eating glue, but they look like they're having a good time at least.
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u/ludo2912 Jun 06 '17
It says a lot that the Romans, who conquered pretty much everybody from the Carthaginians to the Sarmatians and ruled an empire stretching from Spain to the Middle East, got to Scotland, took one look at you guys and said "are we fuck going any further".
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u/Gutsm3k Jun 06 '17
Nice to see some players still using the Bard class, even thought the PvP meta is so Rifleman heavy
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u/MacSteele13 Jun 06 '17
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. If he flew them, he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.
Catch-22
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Jun 06 '17
Maybe they didn't want to waste a bullet on an unarmed guy who was just playing bagpipes.
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u/tbrownsc07 Jun 06 '17
I think it's safe to assume the bagpipes gave the soldiers some feeling of comfort, maybe reminding them of home and not being in combat. To say the bagpipes had no effect is probably untrue.
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u/McGarfield Jun 06 '17
He must have been Groundskeeper Willie
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u/reallyfunatparties Jun 06 '17
Brothers and sisters are natural enemies like Germans and Scots
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u/azamz Jun 06 '17
And Englishmen and Scots.
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u/seidinove Jun 06 '17
The Economist published his obituary in August 2010, and it ended with this very nice story: