HEROISM OF PIPERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1943, Page 4

HEROISM OF PIPERS

SCOTTISH REGIMENTS. N.Z. SOLDIER'S TRIBUTE. Butt of countless jokes, yet acknowledged as a powerful stimulant in battle, the bagpipes and their players received high tribute from a New Zealand soldier overseas when writing to his parents at Stratford.

“These men have not died in vain; their deeds go on in the memories of men,’’ the soldier wrote after describing the exploits of the pipers of two Scottish regiments. “I am sure that what our ‘Scotties 'did that night will live for over.” When the New Zealanders went into action the night.the writer was wounded, they were supported on the right by the Black Watch and on the left by the Sutherland Highlanders, both of which were piped into battle by pipers at the head of each company. “As I lay wounded throughout the night in the midst of the battle,” he wrote, “after I had taken off my load of Mills bombs and other ammunition and the noise of battle had died down, I could hear the pipes still being played, but growing fainter until they ceased. In the morning, when the ambulances came, some of these pipers were' picked up, still clutching their pipes.” Other references in the letter were highly appreciative of the stirring qualities of martial pipe music and the heroism and devotion to duty of the Highlanders who played their instruments throughout the battle, regardless of danger to themselves in maintaining the traditions of the famous Scottish regiments.