Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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Fatal coincidence...:
How Glenn Miller Died!
In the early morning of December 15, 1944, 138 Lancaster heavy bombers of No. 3 Bomber Group of RAF Bomber Command over the English Channel returning to their British bases...:
Dense fog prevails, which only occasionally breaks open.
The planes are all still carrying their full bomb loads.
The attack on the German city of Siegen, which had actually been planned for the night before, had to be canceled because the British fighter planes intended to protect the bombers could not take off because of the fog.
The "Lancaster" formation had to turn around and start the return flight, because entering German airspace without fighter protection would have bordered on suicide.
As the formation approaches the British Isles again, the Squadron Leader orders the usual procedure for such cases:
All 138 "Lancasters" release their bombs at the same time and throw the devil things into the English Channel!
This was always done in similar cases during the war, because landing the fully loaded bombers on one's own airfields was considered far too dangerous!
Tens of thousands of bombs flew into the canal between 1940 and 1945, so nothing unusual...?
Yes this time!
While the "Lancaster" releases its deadly cargo, the fog breaks up briefly and the navigator (and bombardier) in one of the planes, RNZAF Flight Sergeant Keith Fred Shaw from New Zealand...
... very briefly sees a single-engine airplane flying in the opposite direction under the bomber formation, which gets completely caught up in the hail of bombs...:
Then the fog bank closes again - Shaw can't see anything else. After landing his Lancaster, however, he is certain that it was not a German fighter, but a US liaison aircraft of the type "UC-64A Noorduyn Norseman"...
After evaluating the relevant German archives, one thing is certain: not a single Nazi Air Force aircraft was flying in the entire area in question at that time!
An American "Noorduyn Norseman", on the other hand, does!
The "Norseman" had started at first light from Croydon near London...
...and on the way to Paris. She was to bring a well-known artist to the French capital, where a concert by the orchestra he was conducting was scheduled for the evening to celebrate the city's liberation.
The passenger's name was Major (Brev.) Glenn Miller...
...and the orchestra was his famous band, which had released world hits like "Moonlight Serenade", "In the Mood" or "Chattanooga Choo Choo".
For the duration of the war, the US Army had hired the Glenn Miller Orchestra to look after the troops and put the band members in uniform and renamed the "Army Air Force Orchestra"...:
Bandleader Miller himself received the brevet rank (an officer's rank only for the duration of the war!) of a Captain in the USAAF - and was promoted to Major (brev.) in the fall of 1944...:
To this day, no remains have been found of either Miller or the plane - which is primarily due to the fact that since the Battle of Britain (1940) hundreds of plane wrecks have been rotting on the ground in the English Channel...:
The authorities are waiting - in the hope that a sign of life from the famous man will appear - until Christmas Eve.
On December 24, 1944, Glenn Miller was officially declared "missing, presumed dead".
Of course there are countless conspiracy theories surrounding Miller's disappearance, let's leave the usual "alien stories" aside, these two remain...:
The first "theory": Glenn Miller did not die in a plane crash, but of lung cancer!
This is said to have been suppressed because until 1942 he played a radio show sponsored by a large tobacco company. This is unlikely, however, because the connection between lung cancer and cigarette smoking was not yet generally known and - at least in the United States and the United Kingdom - not yet scientifically proven.
The second "theory" is "wing icing crash", which could be a real possibility given the weather conditions on the day of the crash.
However, one has to counter this that the formation of ice on the aircraft wings, which is feared by airmen and which leads to the stalling of the current and thus to the crash of the plane, did not occur in any of the "Lancaster" bombers that night, which flew much higher (where it is even colder) and also traveled much longer than the "Norseman", which had just started shortly before and in which Glenn Miller was sitting...
Keith Fred Shaw stuck to his beliefs to the end of his life...:
And here music - The "US Army Air Force Orchestra" conducted by Maj. Glenn Miller - The recordings are from 1944 - shortly before Miller's death...:
How Glenn Miller Died!
In the early morning of December 15, 1944, 138 Lancaster heavy bombers of No. 3 Bomber Group of RAF Bomber Command over the English Channel returning to their British bases...:
Dense fog prevails, which only occasionally breaks open.
The planes are all still carrying their full bomb loads.
The attack on the German city of Siegen, which had actually been planned for the night before, had to be canceled because the British fighter planes intended to protect the bombers could not take off because of the fog.
The "Lancaster" formation had to turn around and start the return flight, because entering German airspace without fighter protection would have bordered on suicide.
As the formation approaches the British Isles again, the Squadron Leader orders the usual procedure for such cases:
All 138 "Lancasters" release their bombs at the same time and throw the devil things into the English Channel!
This was always done in similar cases during the war, because landing the fully loaded bombers on one's own airfields was considered far too dangerous!
Tens of thousands of bombs flew into the canal between 1940 and 1945, so nothing unusual...?
Yes this time!
While the "Lancaster" releases its deadly cargo, the fog breaks up briefly and the navigator (and bombardier) in one of the planes, RNZAF Flight Sergeant Keith Fred Shaw from New Zealand...
... very briefly sees a single-engine airplane flying in the opposite direction under the bomber formation, which gets completely caught up in the hail of bombs...:
Then the fog bank closes again - Shaw can't see anything else. After landing his Lancaster, however, he is certain that it was not a German fighter, but a US liaison aircraft of the type "UC-64A Noorduyn Norseman"...
After evaluating the relevant German archives, one thing is certain: not a single Nazi Air Force aircraft was flying in the entire area in question at that time!
An American "Noorduyn Norseman", on the other hand, does!
The "Norseman" had started at first light from Croydon near London...
...and on the way to Paris. She was to bring a well-known artist to the French capital, where a concert by the orchestra he was conducting was scheduled for the evening to celebrate the city's liberation.
The passenger's name was Major (Brev.) Glenn Miller...
...and the orchestra was his famous band, which had released world hits like "Moonlight Serenade", "In the Mood" or "Chattanooga Choo Choo".
For the duration of the war, the US Army had hired the Glenn Miller Orchestra to look after the troops and put the band members in uniform and renamed the "Army Air Force Orchestra"...:
Bandleader Miller himself received the brevet rank (an officer's rank only for the duration of the war!) of a Captain in the USAAF - and was promoted to Major (brev.) in the fall of 1944...:
To this day, no remains have been found of either Miller or the plane - which is primarily due to the fact that since the Battle of Britain (1940) hundreds of plane wrecks have been rotting on the ground in the English Channel...:
The authorities are waiting - in the hope that a sign of life from the famous man will appear - until Christmas Eve.
On December 24, 1944, Glenn Miller was officially declared "missing, presumed dead".
Of course there are countless conspiracy theories surrounding Miller's disappearance, let's leave the usual "alien stories" aside, these two remain...:
The first "theory": Glenn Miller did not die in a plane crash, but of lung cancer!
This is said to have been suppressed because until 1942 he played a radio show sponsored by a large tobacco company. This is unlikely, however, because the connection between lung cancer and cigarette smoking was not yet generally known and - at least in the United States and the United Kingdom - not yet scientifically proven.
The second "theory" is "wing icing crash", which could be a real possibility given the weather conditions on the day of the crash.
However, one has to counter this that the formation of ice on the aircraft wings, which is feared by airmen and which leads to the stalling of the current and thus to the crash of the plane, did not occur in any of the "Lancaster" bombers that night, which flew much higher (where it is even colder) and also traveled much longer than the "Norseman", which had just started shortly before and in which Glenn Miller was sitting...
Keith Fred Shaw stuck to his beliefs to the end of his life...:
And here music - The "US Army Air Force Orchestra" conducted by Maj. Glenn Miller - The recordings are from 1944 - shortly before Miller's death...:
