IN THE MOOD FOR A GLENN MILLER MYSTERY

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THE FAMOUS BANDLEADER?

On a stormy afternoon in December 1944, a Paris-bound Norseman light aircraft took off from the south of England. Within an hour the plane developed engine trouble and crashed into the sea, killing its three passengers — one of them being the American bandleader Glenn Miller.

That, at least, is the official story. But many people doubt that anything so straightforward happened or that Miller died as the authorities say he did.

Doubts were first raised as early as 1945 when an inquiry failed to explain why no wreckage or bodies were found. Miller’s plane, alone of the dozens that crashed into the English Channel during the Second World War, left no trace.

We now know that the Norseman did indeed crash. Divers found its wreckage on the seabed some years ago, minus a propeller. The US Air Force and British Ministry of Defence said this vindicated the 1945 inquiry and pointed clearly to engine failure. Most people were satisfied although it didn’t explain the absence of bodies.

Then several years ago the logbook of an RAF navigator, Fred Shaw, came to light. In the logbook Shaw revealed that the Norseman may have been downed by British bombs rather than engine failure.

Shaw reported that his Lancaster bomber and 137 others had been ordered to ditch their bombs in the English Channel on December 15 1944 — date of the Norseman’s flight — after an aborted raid over Germany.

RISK

‘We were flying at the safety height of 4000 feet,’ Shaw said later. ‘Below that, one ran a risk of damage from bomb blast.

‘As the bombs went down I saw a Norseman flying at about 1500 feet. I watched it flying south towards France. Around it I saw the sea blistering with exploding bombs. As each bomb burst I could see the blast wave from it radiating outward.

‘It was obvious that the Norseman was in trouble. I saw it flick over to port in what looked like a spin. Eventually I saw it crash into the English Channel. Seconds later my rear gunner confirmed that he had also witnessed the tragedy.’

After Shaw’s testimony, the logbook of a second aviator on that bombing run came to prominence. RAF flight engineer Derek Thurman said he and two other crew members on his plane saw a Norseman brought down by the hail of jettisoned bombs.

DISLIKED FLYING

Was Glenn Miller therefore killed by his allies rather than by mechanical failure in the Norseman?

Not necessarily. It’s known that at least six Norsemen were flying across the English Channel that day and two of them disappeared.

Chris Hay, author of a book about Glenn Miller, said, ‘Which of these Norsemen the air crew saw, if any, we will never know.’

It may be irrelevant anyway, as there is reason to doubt that Miller travelled on any of the planes.

For one thing it’s known that he disliked flying in light aircraft and had opted to travel in a bigger plane.

More to the point, several witnesses reported seeing Miller in the Pigalle district of Paris that evening, several hours after his supposed death. They agreed that he’d been drinking in a sleazy bar before going off to a neighbouring brothel.

This may not sound like celebrity behaviour but Miller had an eye for the ladies and was known to frequent such places.

In 1972 a medic claimed that he had been called to a fight at the brothel on that December night in 1944 and treated an American who answered Miller’s description.

SECRET BURIAL

The man, in US Army Air Force uniform, had serious head injuries and was apparently flown back to the USA for further treatment.

We know for sure that Miller’s wife later bought a grave in the USA and that a secret burial took place there, but the authorities refuse to say whose funeral it was.

Could it have been that of Glenn Miller? Was the ‘crash’ in the English Channel a cover story created so as not to despoil the name of a national hero who died after a drunken brawl at a brothel? Does that explain this enduring mystery?

Perhaps. But there again . . .