Glenn Miller Disappears...

During the era of World War II, Glenn Miller and his band were one of the biggest musical acts in the world. He famously wrote such songs as “In the Mood” and “Moonlight Serenade” and was in high demand from the years 1939-1944. With the onset of the war, Miller disbanded his act and joined the army. He was put in charge of a band of service members whose job it was to entertain the troops. On December 15, 1945, Glenn Miller was ordered to fly from London to Paris to join his band. Miller was to lead his band in a performance for the opening of a new allied headquarters in Versailles. In the company of two crew members, Glenn Miller boarded a single engine plane to fly across the English Channel and was never seen again. His disappearance has become the source of much controversy and mystery.

Here is the BBC announcement of Glenn Miller’s disappearance.

There have been numerous explanations of Glenn Miller’s disappearance in the years since the end of the war. One explanation, generally acknowledged by the British military, is that Miller’s plane was probably struck down by friendly fire. When British bombers were returning home, they had to dump whatever bombs they had left over the channel in order to land safely. Some have argued that a fleet of English bombers were returning from an aborted air raid on Germany the same night that Glenn Miller and his crew were flying out from London. Since Miller was flying in a single engine plane, he would have been flying much lower than the bombers, putting him in harm’s way when the bombers dumped their unused bombs over the channel. Read more about this theory here.

Another theory suggests that Glenn Miller and his crew went down off the coast of France. Read more about this theory here.

For more information on Glenn Miller’s disappearance check out this site.

Take a listen to some of Glenn Miller’s best known songs including “Moonlight Serenade”

[Image via wikimedia]