The Allied invasion of Normandy beginning on 6 June 1944 was one of the pivotal events of the Second World War and is currently being commemorated across Europe on its 75th anniversary.

The assault on the beaches of northern France by British, American, Canadian and Free French troops on D-Day was the largest amphibious operation ever attempted and enabled the Western Allies crossing the English Channel from Portsmouth to gain an important foothold from which to commence its pushback against Nazi Germany.

The events of D-Day, codenamed Operation Neptune, are well documented and have been recreated in visceral detail in films like The Longest Day (1962) and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) but some of the more unusual characters to have taken part do not always get their due.

The Scottish bagpiper

Among the most extraordinary sights (and sounds) on the beaches that day was “Piper Bill” Millin, a Canadian-born Scotsman who blew his bagpipes to rally the men storming the French sands.

D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Show all 30 1 /30 D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Troops from the 48th Royal Marines land on Juno Beach, Normandy on 6 June 1944 Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures A landing craft from the Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of the US Army's First Division on the morning of June 6, 1944 US Coastguard D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures An aerial view of the pierhead and breakwater at the artificial 'Mulberry Harbour' at Arromanches Royal Air Force/IWM D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures American troops wade towards the beach in the Normandy Landings Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures A line of tank landing ships, each towing a barrage balloon, head towards the Normandy coast Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures A flotilla of landing craft forms in the English Channel on the eve of the Normandy Landings PA D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Crews of B-26 Marauders charged with laying smokescreens over beaches in advance of the Normandy Landings are briefed with their mission The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures British soldiers joke as they read a tourist guide about France aboard a landing craft heading towards Normandy AFP/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures British boats arrive in Normandy PA D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures A view from above of Allied naval forces engaged in the Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944 AFP/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures American troops wade ashore on Omaha beach in Normandy on 6 June 1944 Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures American medics administer first aid to wounded soldiers on Utah beach in Normandy, 6 June 1944 Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Canadian soldiers from 9th Brigade land with their bicycles at Juno Beach during the Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944 AFP/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Consolidated B24L Liberators of the 832nd Bomb Squadron, 486th Bomb Group, US 8th Air Force, fly from their base at Sudbury, England to pass over the Normandy invasion fleet sailing in the channel Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures A convoy of Allied landing craft, protected by barrage balloons, crosses the English Channel on its way to France during the Normandy Landings Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Ships towing barrage balloons land at Omaha Beach in the Normandy Landings Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Paratroopers give the thumbs-up signal, before leaving in a glider to drop on Normandy as reinforcements Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Royal Marine commandos move off the Normandy beaches during the advance inland from "Sword" beach PA D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Royal Marine commandos move off the Normandy beaches during the advance inland from "Sword" beach PA D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Allied paratroopers land on La Manche coast on 6 June 1944 after the Allied forces stormed the beaches earlier in the day AFP/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures US troops in landing craft, during the Normandy Landings Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Survivors from a landing craft which sank off Omaha Beach, Normandy reach the shore on 6 June 1944 Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures American troops pass through devastated Valognes, on their way towards Cherbourg after the storming of Normandy, 13 June 1944 Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Members of the Allied Invasion Force keep watch from fox holes dug in a Normandy beach on 14 June 1944 Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures Allied soldiers meet a herd of cows as they make their way through the Normandy country in June 1944, days after the Normandy Landings AFP/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures US soldiers surround a burning German tank in a Normandy village, days after the Normandy Landings AFP/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures US soldiers gather around trucks disembarking from landing crafts shortly after the Normandy Landings AFP/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures British troops during the Normandy Landings AFP/Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures US troops at Cherbourg unload supplies for the advancing troops in the Normandy Landings Getty D-Day 75: Normandy landings in pictures A timetable of the Normandy Landings PA

Aged just 21, Millin was ordered to play by Simon Fraser, the 15th Lord Lovat, as shots rained down from the cliffs on Sword beach. He did so on the basis that English orders need not apply to Scots, playing “Highland Laddie”, “The Road to the Isles” and “All the Blue Bonnets are Over the Border” to stir the Allies to victory with the songs of home as they advanced to take Pegasus Bridge.

He did so wearing a kilt of Cameron tartan, the same worn by his father in Flanders during the First World War.

The celebrities

Several stars of the silver screen who had enlisted to serve their countries took part in D-Day.

Among the most famous were David Niven, the British actor best-remembered for A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Niven ended the war a lieutenant colonel and was one of the first British officers to land at Normandy. He had served with “Phantom”, a secret reconnaissance unit and would later be presented with the Legion of Merit by President Dwight D Eisenhower himself.

Hollywood actor David Niven served at D-Day (Hulton Archive/Getty)

Other Hollywood stars present include Richard Todd, Robert Montgomery, Charles Durning and James Doohan (later known as Scotty on Star Trek).

Todd, a captain, was part of the British airborne division who were parachuted in after the capture of Pegasus Bridge and would later play the man who led his battalion, Major John Howard, in The Longest Day, in which Fonda also featured.

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The reclusive American novelist JD Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye (1951) was there, present at Utah Beach with the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, as were the civil rights activist Medgar Evers and the famed baseball pitcher Yogi Berra.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr, son of the 26th president of the US, won the Medal of Honour for his part in the day’s proceedings.

The paradogs

In the run up to D-Day, the 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion had commenced a novel new experiment.

Tasked with readying canines for combat, they began to teach them to parachute too, meaning that specially trained dogs could be delivered to the beaches to assist with locating mines, warn against enemies and boost the morale of the men.

The project’s mastermind was Lance Corporal Ken Bailey, a vet in his civilian days but since posted on to the War Dog Training School in Hertfordshire.

The school had been housing dogs volunteered for the war effort since 1941, training them to remain calm when exposed to loud noises and identify the smell of explosives and gunpowder at the Larkhill Garrison.

In order to convince the dogs to jump using parachutes originally designed for bicycles, they had to be kept hungry and then enticed into making a leap of faith from an aircraft on the promise of scraps of meat.

The first to do so, according to Bailey’s notes, was a female Alsatian named Ranee. The dogs came to enjoy making the jump as they became more and more accustomed to their training.

Parachutists landing in the fields Normandy (AFP/Getty)

On D-Day, the 13th Battalion’s three planes took to the skies each containing 20 men and a dog each: Ranee, another Alsatian named Monty and an Alsatian-Collie cross named Brian, nicknamed “Bing”.

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Bing was overwhelmed by the chaos unfolding below him and initially refused to leap from the hatch, forcing an engineer to toss him out, only for his parachute to become ensnared in a tree from which he had to be rescued.