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

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- 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/