Watch WWII veteran perform The Shores of Normandy in a touching tribute to the fallen soldiers!
Video Credit: Youtube/Normandy Memorial Trust
2019 is here, and one would expect to see hits of Ed Sheeran or Justin Bieber on the top of Amazon’s singles chart.
Nevertheless, a heart-wrenching, touching song of a World War II veteran, Jim Radford, beat the singles of popular artists as it took over the internet with the speed of light.
Mr. Radford is the world’s youngest known survivor of the D-Day who wrote the song titled “The Shores of Normandy” back in 1969 in remembrance of the decisive battle’s 25th anniversary.
Half a century later, for the D-Day’s 75th anniversary, however, the veteran released a new edition that he refers to as “a powerful recollection.”
“Tune into @LBC at 11 am to hear @mattfrei interview chart-topping veteran Jim Radford. Download his fundraising single at http://bitly.com/DDay75song #DDay75 #NormandyMemorial” the Normandy Memorial Trust tweeted after the song’s release.
In the touching ballad, Mr. Radford recalled June 6, 1944, and his role as a 15-year-old Merchant Navy galley boy who helped build the Mulberry Harbor on Gold Beach.
While teens under 16 normally weren’t permitted to serve the British Navy, Radford managed to land a job due to applying for a position of a tugboat sailor that didn’t feature this restriction. Soon after joining the Navy, however, Radford realized what he had gotten himself into.
“They gave me a job straight away, but I didn’t know when I went that my first trip was going to be the invasion of Europe. As my song says, ‘In the cold gray lights of the sixth of June, we set sail for Normandy,’” Radford said in an interview with ABC. “The song is really to honor and remember all those brave lads who didn’t come back.”
“It wasn’t until I went back, saw the children playing on the beach, that I was sort of overwhelmed with recollection of what I’ve seen and moved to tears by the contrast, as a lot of veterans were,” he told the Normandy Memorial Trust.
“It’s very important to me and other veterans that there should be a place like this where people can come and reflect because we’re not going to be around for much longer to tell the story, and the story needs to be told because people need to learn lessons from it,” the 90-year-old veteran added in an interview with KDVR.
“I’m obviously delighted and extremely surprised to be No. 1 on this particular chart, and I hope it does well because the more copies are downloaded, the more money we’ll have to pay for this wonderful memorial we’re building here.”
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