Who killed Glenn Miller?

Question

For decades he and the crew of his aircraft were thought MIA over the English Channel.

Per the History Channel: British government revealed that an RAF pilot shot down an American bomber containing Glen Miller and crew. It was not revealed because they feared it would hurt relations between the US and Britain during WWII.

Answer 1

Please DO NOT give ngina best answer, she just cut and pasted the wikipedia entry. What a loser.

Best current theory is that his plane was hit by an allied bomb over the channel. A large force of returning bombers from a scrubbed mission over Germany was flying home to their bases in England. The bombers could not land fully loaded with bombs, so they dropped them into the English Channel, as was routine.

This bomber group was in the same air corridor, at the same time, about 5,000 feet above Millers' plane. No one knows for sure, but this is the leading current theory.

Answer 2

It is likely that Glen Miller was killed by UK "friendly fire" as it has been revealed that UK bombers were flying above the fighter planes that Glen Miller was in and on their journey the bombers jettisoned bombs over the Channel.

However, nobody will really know for sure because of the passage of time.

Does it matter?

He made great music, he served his country and he died a hero trying to bring freedom to Europe.

Answer 3

Glenn Miller was killed when his plane disappeared over the English Channel in 1944.

Answer 4

Has new evidence been brought forth to suggest otherwise? Why would anyone kill Glenn Miller, unless it was a German U boat in the channel or a German aircraft.

Answer 5

The best evidence shows that the norseman he was in was hit by a bomb from RAF bombers dumping left over bombs. They were flying above and the Norseman at low altitude never saw the danger.

Answer 6

Fate killed Glenn Miller.

Answer 7

Was he shot down? Did his plane suffer engine failure? Was he captured by space aliens in a flying saucer because they wanted his music on Zeptar 37?

Nobody knows. His plane went down over the Channel with all hands.

Answer 8

I agree with stafflers but will just add get a life. There is a lot more pertinent problems that you may help solve if you stop obsessing about something and someone so insignificant.

Answer 9

Military service, disappearance, and personality
In 1942, Miller joined the United States Army Air Forces and was commissioned as a captain as well as being appointed as the branch's band director. He initially formed a large marching band that was to be the core of a network of service orchestras, but his attempts at modernizing military music were met with resistance from tradition-minded career officers. He instead formed what was first known as the Band of the Training Command, a 24-piece dance band augmented by 21 string players chosen from a number of symphony orchestras. The dance band boasted several members of his civilian orchestra, including chief arranger Jerry Gray as well as stars from other bands such as Ray McKinley, Bobby Nichols, Hank Freeman, Peanuts Hucko and Mel Powell. Johnny Desmond and the Crew Chiefs were the singers, although recordings were also made with guest stars such as Bing Crosby, Irene Manning and Dinah Shore. The Dinah Shore sessions include a charming version of Stardust and are of special musical interest as they were recorded in high fidelity and were intended as the band's first commercial releases, although they were not made public until the early 1990s.

The orchestra was first based at Yale University. From mid-1943 to mid-1944 they made hundreds of live appearances, transcriptions, and "I Sustain the Wings" radio broadcasts for CBS and NBC. Miller felt it was important that the band be as close as possible to the fighting troops. so in mid-1944 he had the group transferred to London, where they were renamed the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Force. While in the United Kingdom the band gave more than 800 performances to an estimated one million Allied servicemen.

For many years, the only available recordings of this band were on a five-record set issued by RCA in the mid-1950s. These were recordings of the AAF Band's "I Sustain the Wings" broadcasts. Since the nineties, however, RCA and various companies have issued high fidelity compact discs of music previously thought lost. [3]

On December 15, 1944, Miller, now a major, was scheduled to fly from the United Kingdom to Paris to play for the soldiers who had recently liberated Paris. His plane departed from RAF Twinwood Farm, Clapham, Bedfordshire, but disappeared over the English Channel and was never found. Miller's disappearance remains a mystery; neither his remains nor the wreckage of his plane (a single-engined Noorduyn Norseman UC-64, USAAF Tail Number 44-70285) were ever recovered from the water. (Clive Ward's discovery of a Noorduyn Norseman off the coast of Northern France in 1985 was unverifiable and contained no human remains.)

This has led to many conspiracy theories over the years. A popular theory holds that, in the foggy weather that bedeviled the Channel on that day, Miller's plane strayed into a "safe drop" zone and was bombed out of the air by Canadian Air Force bombers disposing of bombs that went unused during an aborted bombing run on German positions. Another theory holds that he landed safely, but died of a heart attack in a bordello ín Paris (source: George T. Simon: "Glenn Miller, Sein Leben, Seine Musik", Wien 1987). A third theory has also gained some recent credibility based on observations from both his biographer and his younger brother Herb Miller. Glenn had been a chain-smoker for much of his life and by late 1944 was suffering from severe weight loss and shortness of breath, leading to speculation that he was terminally ill, probably with lung cancer. This theory also holds that he landed safely, but died of his illnesses on December 16th. Both of these latter theories overlook the fact that Miller wasn't alone on the flight; there were two other officers aboard the aircraft when it disappeared. They also have never been found.

Jazz critic Gary Giddins has said that Miller's bitterness and aloofness with employees was probably a result of the many years he endured trying to build a successful band. According to Leo Walker in his book The Big Band Almanac, few people knew Miller well. Two people who did were Don Haynes, Miller's manager, and George T. Simon, jazz critic and author of Glenn Miller & His Orchestra. Don Haynes told Walker that Miller was a reserved person, but extremely warm towards those near him. But other musicians who were associated with Miller thought differently. They all respected Miller, but described him as all business, generally cold, perhaps insecure, and a person who had a driving ambition to be successful. But they all agreed that Miller was a musical perfectionist. Close friend and jazz critic George Simon says in his book The Big Bands he "could also spot phonies, whom he truly detested. If you were straight with Glenn, he'd give you at least the time of day. But if you weren't, he wouldn't even give you the time of night."

Answer 10

That's just like that bloke, who was on 'stars in their eyes'...
Cat asked him "who he was going to be'?
He said Glenn Miller.
The doors opened, up came the smoke and no one has seen 'the poor f*cker ever since!