ADMIRED BANDLEADER VANISHES
On Dec. 15, 1944, 40-yearold Big Band legend Glenn Miller boarded a small single-engine plane in Bedfordshire, England, bound for France to put on a concert for the troops who had liberated Paris. Invited by Lt. Col. Norman Francis Baessell, an important figure in the war effort, Miller accepted the offer of a lift even though he had a fear of flying.
The fog was thick that morning, with the cloud ceiling dropping fast. Pilot John Morgan wasn’t certified to fly by instruments alone, but Baessell ordered him to take off anyway.
The plane is believed to have been a UC-64A Norseman. Carburetors on the military’s single-engine crafts, including Norsemans, were notorious for icing up, causing planes to stall in flight, and temperatures hovered around freezing when the aircraft lifted off the runway.
Somewhere over the
English Channel, the plane disappeared. Nobody ever knew what happened to it.
Years later, after extensive research, Miller biographer Dennis Spragg offered a theory: “The engine stops, the airplane turns nose down, and in eight seconds it’s in the water ... you have a perfect storm of human error, mechanical failure and weather.”
Miller had joined the military during World War II at the height of his fame.
As a major in the Army Air Force Band, he led morale-boosting music broadcasts from London, England.
Miller’s Bluebirds Records classics include “In the Mood,” “Over the Rainbow,” “Moonlight Cocktail” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” and have secured his reputation as one of the most successful bandleaders of the swing era.
Glenn Miller recorded 17 No. 1 singles from 1939 to 1943.