The Scottish bagpiper who played as Allied forces stormed ashore in German-occupied France in 1944 has died at the age of 88.

Bill Millin, personal piper of Lord Lovat, was with British commandos as they landed on Sword Beach on D-Day.

Mr Millin began playing Hieland Laddie immediately upon jumping into the water, as soldiers fell around him, and continued amid the incoming gunfire.

He continued to belt out tunes throughout the landing, marching up and down the shoreline.

German prisoners later said they had not shot at him because they believed he was mad.

Speaking in 1995, Mr Millin said he was sure not how he managed to march up and down the shore.

"Those days, when you're very young, you do some very foolish things," he said.

"If I had to do it now, I'd think twice. But that was my job as piper and working at the front didn't make any difference at the time."

Mr Millin was also part of the group that captured the French port city of Ouistreham and travelled with Lord Lovat to Benouville, playing the bagpipes as the troops advanced.

Mr Millin came under sniper fire twice in Benouville, but on both occasions he played the soldiers off despite the danger.

His action was depicted in the 1962 film, The Longest Day.