On December 15, 1944, big band leader Glenn Miller was scheduled to fly from an RAF base in England to Paris to play a show. His plane, a Norseman C-64 aircraft, never arrived.
Miller joined the war effort in 1942, at the peak of his popularity as a musician. At 38, he was already too old to be drafted, but wrote the Army in hopes of leading its band. The Army accepted him, and he was promoted to Major in 1944.
The official word on Miller's disappearance was that his plane had hit bad weather over the English Channel, but rumors ran rampant. Some believed the aircraft was shot down by a German assassination squad, while others believed he made it to Paris, but was killed by a Parisian MP. The craziest theory, however, came from a German journalist in the 90s, who claimed Miller died of a heart attack in the arms of a French prostitute and the American military covered up the episode.
Still another explanation – and perhaps the most likely – came from RAF navigator Fred Shaw who claimed to have seen Miller's plane hit in a "friendly fire" accident while bombs were being jettisoned after an aborted raid on Germany.
No comments:
Post a Comment