WWII: Dec. 15, 1944, Musician Glenn Miller Flt. Lost Over English Channel; Battle of the Bulge Began

[appalachiablue]

- Glenn Miller, who had come to Britain with the American band of the Supreme Allied Command, performed at the premiere of the film “Going My Way” in London on Aug. 5, 1944. (AP)

- '75 years ago, Glenn Miller vanished on a flight over the English Channel.' The bandleader, whose music defined a generation and comforted the war-weary, was never found. Washington Post, Dec. 24, *2019.

The news broke most places on Christmas Day 1944, crammed onto front pages amid the blaring war headlines: Glenn Miller was missing. The legendary American big band leader, whose music cheered the war-weary and thrilled a generation, had vanished over the English Channel while flying from Britain to France.

Indeed, he had been missing for 10 days, and for part of that time no one realized he was overdue.

Seventy-five years ago this month, in one of the strangest episodes of World War II, the U.S. military “lost” Maj. Glenn Miller, one of the biggest stars of his era. It took four days before top officers discovered that Miller, without authorization, had hitched a ride on a small plane with a friend and a 22-year-old pilot, had flown into foul weather and probably crashed, according to historian Dennis M. Spragg.

Based in England, Miller was going to France to arrange for his Army Air Force band’s move to Paris, now that the allies had shoved the Germans back during World War II. A missing-aircrew report was filed for the plane on Dec. 16 when it did not radio its arrival, Spragg said. But military officials did not know that Miller was aboard and considered the report routine. “Nobody connects it with Miller,” he said.

Plus, the report was eclipsed by the gigantic German attack the same day that began the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and France.

On Christmas Eve, 1944, the snow turned red with blood. It was only when Miller failed to meet his band in Paris a few days later that people realized he might be missing. “When Glenn wasn’t there to meet us, I knew something was wrong,” recalled Carmen Mastrin, a guitarist in Miller’s band, according to Geoffrey Butcher’s history of the band’s war years. “He had gone on ahead to make arrangements for us and I knew he would accomplish what he started to do.”

.. Alton Glenn Miller was a musical giant of his day, with a status like that of the Beatles for a later generation. (Some of his wartime radio broadcasts were made in the Abbey Road studios, later made famous by the Beatles, Spragg said.)

And his loss was akin to the sudden deaths of John Lennon, Michael Jackson or Prince.

His music was embraced by the youthful cohort of the late 1930s and early ’40s — the kids who packed dance halls, fed jukeboxes and then went off to World II.

Miller, 40, setting aside a lucrative civilian music career, went with them, joining the Army in 1942...

More, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/12/24/glenn-miller-is-missing-years-ago-big-band-mega-star-vanished-flight-over-english-channel/

[irisblue]

1. That video is really well done!

[appalachiablue]

4. Nice remix from 2018, NYC skyscrapers and Art Deco lettering

are interesting. The clip is from the 1941 movie, 'Sun Valley Serenade'. Handsome actor John Payne at the piano. My aunt, a popular ravishing brunette and her friends partied with him in the 1940s mom said, amazing.

[pandr32]

2. Wow! Thanks for this.

I hadn't heard that story.

[appalachiablue]

5. I didn't realize he was missing that long, 10 days and they

just announced it on Christmas Eve, how sad...

[StClone]

3. My Father survived Omaha Beach

And as a kid I liked a lot of Glenn Miller, but Dad's taste for Miller did not survive. Great loss in my opinion of a generation of music. Planes have sure taken a lot of lives from Lynyrd, Croce and the day the music died.

[appalachiablue]

6. It was a great generation of music, mom said they danced

to Tommy Dorsey live at college events. I enjoy that era's music a lot.

Airplanes have been the source of too many musicians lost lives; I saw Don McLean perform in college.

What was your father's experience at Omaha Beach like? My dad landed there in mid Dec. 1944, 76 years ago.

[StClone]

7. OPPPS so sorry my Dad was on Utah Beach!

Utah beach was a later much less hazardous landing. Sorry did not mean to take from the heroic survives of one of the Greatest battles of all of modern warfare. Thank you for you father's service he was a true American heroe for what he endured and then relate his experience to you! Bless him.

My Father was a tank commander Staff Sargent and rarely spoke of any of his war service until near his death.

[appalachiablue]

8. No problem. My father never said much either, but I wished

I had asked. Dad wasn't in the summer D-Day operation but came a bit later to England in early Dec. 1944. He trained there some and then shipped over to Normandy. He was a 1st lieut., Anti Aircraft Artillery, 7th Army.

I never knew he landed in Normandy until I listened to an audio tape he made in the mid 1980s, he died a year later, far too soon.

In summer 2003 I visited the Normandy Beaches and the American Museum there. I'd love to return, and to see England again but it's unlikely.