‘I stopped World War Three,’ claims singer James Blunt

James Blunt’s refusal to obey orders during the Balkans war prevented the start of World War Three, the singer has claimed. The 36-year-old chart-topping singer made the stunning claims in an interview with John Pienaar on Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics.

Blunt, a former cavalry officer in the British Army, was leading a NATO column under order to seize the Pristina airfield in Kosovo in 1999.Facing a 200-strong Russian advance, the then-25-year-old was given orders to ‘destroy’ the Russian troops by the Supreme Allied Commander of the NATO Forces in Europe.’I was given a direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there,’ the ‘You’re Beautiful’ hit maker has revealed for the first time.’I was the lead officer, with my troop of men behind me… It was a mad situation. The direct command, from General Wesley Clark, was to overpower them. Various words were used that seemed unusual to us. Words such as ‘destroy’ came down the radio.’He said his men were given orders by the American general to ‘reach the airfield and take a hold of it.’ But Blunt – who served under his real name James Blount – says: ‘We had 200 Russians lined up ,pointing their weapons at us aggressively.’ The singer, who has gone on to sell over 11 million albums since leaving the forces in October 2002, risked a court martial by refusing to go along with the orders to attack, a command he feared would spark a major conflict with Russia. – www.dailymail.co.uk

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