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One of the most stirring of French military marches -- the Soldiers of Robert the Bruce -- has Scottish roots. Here it is played at the burial of two French commandos who died in Burkina Faso.
French special forces covered 200m (219yds) of open ground and got to within 10m of the hostages before being spotted. The two French soldiers who died were killed at close quarters as they entered one of the kidnappers' four shelters.
bbc.com/news/world-afr…
bbc.com/news/world-afr…
Seventy five years ago Bill Millin was playing bagpipes too as he led Lord Lovat's commandos to the relief of Pegasus bridge on D Day. The Germans thought he was fey and called him the 'mad piper'. One his his tunes was 'the Road to the Isles'.
Time passes but some things never change. It was as if Great War poet TP Cameron Wilson could see into the future when he wrote:
A magpie in Picardy
Told me secret things
Of the music in white feathers,
And the sunlight that sings
A magpie in Picardy
Told me secret things
Of the music in white feathers,
And the sunlight that sings
He said that still through chaos
Works on the ancient plan,
And two things have altered not
Since first the world began—
The beauty of the wild green earth
And the bravery of man.
Works on the ancient plan,
And two things have altered not
Since first the world began—
The beauty of the wild green earth
And the bravery of man.
