TUKUFU: HIS MUSIC WAS THE SOUNDTRACK FOR A GENERATION
TUKUFU: BUT ON CHRISTMAS EVE 1944 THE WORLD HEARD STUNNING NEWS.
Broadcast: “Major Glenn Miller, the well-known American bandleader, is reported missing.
John: They never found a body. They don’t really know what happened. Woosh, he was gone.
TUKUFU: WAS HE ACCIDENTALLY SHOT DOWN BY THE BRITISH ROYAL AIR FORCE?
ROY NESBIT: Just happened to be Glenn Miller in the wrong place at the wrong time.
TUKUFU: DID HIS AIRCRAFT CRASH IN BAD WEATHER?
PILOT SOT: Clear.
KAIAMA: Would ice accumulation actually be enough to bring the Norseman down?
TUKUFU: OR WAS HIS DISAPPEARANCE TIED TO A ROLE IN A SECRET WARTIME PLAN TO OVERTHROW HITLER?
Les Bach: It starts with Duke Ellington and it ends with a plot to assassinate the Fuehrer.
TUKUFU: ON THIS EDITION OF HISTORY DETECTIVES SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS, WE DIG BENEATH THE OFFICIAL STORY….
David: This area is a center for a lot of covert activity.
TUKUFU: TRACK THE FINAL MOMENTS OF MILLER’S MISSING FLIGHT
WES: There’s about a 15 mile discrepancy.
TUKUFU: AND UNEARTH LONG-BURIED MILITARY FILES
WES: Wow.
TUKUFU: AS WE ANSWER THE QUESTION: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO GLENN MILLER?
VO: History Detectives special Investigations was made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station, from viewers like you. Thank you.
TUKUFU: We have us an investigation. Glenn Miller disappears during World War Two. A major mystery.
WES: Think of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones. I mean this guy, Glenn Miller, was every bit as big as those guys were in the 1940s.
KAIAMA: It's hard to imagine that he could’ve just disappeared without a trace.
TUKUFU: Yeah, poof. He’s gone
WES: He you know he takes off from an airbase in England on the way to Paris. And his plane just vanishes. Presumably it's crashes into the English Channel. But you know what, nobody ever found the plane.
WES: STRANGELY THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN OFFICIAL, PUBLISHED REPORT ON WHAT THE US MILITARY BELIEVE HAPPENED TO MILLER THAT DAY. INSTEAD THERE ARE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS, SPECULATION AND FRAGMENTS OF INFORMATION.
KAIAMA: I found something a little odd. You guys might want to take a look at this. It’s a PR document from the supreme headquarters of the allied expeditionary force. Notice anything about that date?
TUKUFU: 24th December 1944.
WES: He disappeared on the fifteenth of December. Why would they wait, what is that, like nine days before they make an initial, an official announcement that he’s disappeared.
KAIAMA: Exactly. I'm thinking that there’s something at least a little bit unusual if not to say downright fishy about that delay.
TUKUFU: Yeah. And -- And we know that Miller himself was kind of afraid of flying. The weather was really bad that day. Why would he have gotten into that plane to fly over the English Channel?
WES: It’s stuff like this that has led to all sorts of conspiracy theories over the years.
WES: THESE INCLUDED WILD TALES THAT MILLER WAS FOUND DEAD IN A PARIS BROTHEL OR SECRETLY RETURNED ALIVE TO THE UNITED STATES
WES: Here’s another one. This guy,Hunton Downs…the Glenn Miller conspiracy.In this one Glenn Miller is part of a secret plot to overthrow the Nazi government. Well, listen to this. He'd be flown to Berlin where the Undercover insurgents would have taken over the radio facilities.
WES: ONE THEORY IS THAT MILLER HAD BEEN PLANNING TO MEET DISSIDENT GERMAN ARMY OFFICERS, AND BROADCAST SUBVERSIVE MESSAGE TO THE GERMAN PEOPLE.
WES: And all of a sudden the German populous would overthrow the Hitler government. Right
KAIAMA : The idea that Glen Miller was a spy for the government. It sounds farfetched but there is, there's precedent for that. Think about Josephine Baker. Same time, same war. She was down in North Africa traveling, entertaining with secret messages written on her sheet music.
WES: I never heard that! Really?
KAIAMA: Absolutely.
TUKUFU: And here’s another theory. The British government did their own investigation uh because they were concerned that he possibly was killed by friendly fire.
WES: Oh I haven't heard that one.
TUKUFU: Yeah.
WES: I say we break this down and uh divide the task up and conquer right?
TUKUFU: Absolutely. Now one of us is gonna have to go to England. And I'm going to volunteer to do that.
WES: You get to go!
TUKUFU: Yeah somebody’s got to do the hard work here.
KAIAMA: Well I'm gonna take this spy business seriously.
WES: I’m really intrigued by this friendly fire theory
TUKUFU: Well let’s stay in contact and let’s take this investigation international.
KAIAMA: We got a plan.
WES: Alright.
TUKUFU: I’M IN ENGLAND, WHERE MILLER WAS STATIONED WHEN HE VANISHED. IN 1942, AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS POPULARITY THE 38 YEAR-OLD BAND LEADER VOLUNTEERED FOR MILITARY SERVICE. HIS 50 PIECE DANCE ORCHESTRA PLAYED TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF GI’S IN THE UNITED STATES AND WARTIME ENGLAND. SOME OF THE THEORIES FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM SEEM UNLIKLEY OR FAR-FETCHED. IS IT POSSIBLE TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT AND SOLVE THIS MYSTERY AFTER MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY?
TUKUFU: MY FIRST STOP IS TWINWOOD FARM AIRFIELD, JUST OUTSIDE OF BEDFORD.
TUKUFU: Hey, John.
JOHN: Tukufu, nice to meet ya.
TUKUFU: My pleasure.
TUKUFU: I’VE BEEN ABLE TO TRACK DOWN A SURVIVING RELATIVE WHO LIVES IN ENGLAND, GLENN’S NEPHEW JOHN MILLER. HE’S AGREED TO MEET AT A PLACE THAT HOLDS BOTH SADNESS AND MYSTERY FOR HIS FAMILY.
JOHN: This is the place where my Uncle Glenn took off from on his last flight.
TUKUFU: JOHN WAS ONLY A CHILD WHEN HIS UNCLE VANISHED. AS WAS THE CASE FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WARTIME FAMILIES, THERE WAS A KNOCK ON THE DOOR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY.
John: I remember actually when we were notified. A guy came out. I was about that tall.
TUKUFU: Okay.
John: And, uh I was under orders not to open the front door. I did. I opened the door and here’s...this line of brass buttons disappearing over a khaki cliff.
TUKUFU: IT WAS THE WORST POSSILE NEWS. HIS UNCLE GLENN WAS MISSING IN ACTION.
TUKUFU: Now how did that affect your family?
John: Well, my father took it very hard. And, of course, the rest of the family took it hard. And not knowing was uh really...I think that was really the toughest part of it all.
TUKUFU: FORTY TWO YEARS-OLD HELEN MILLER WAS GLENN’S COLLEGE SWEETHEART. THE COUPLE HAD TWO YOUNG ADOPTED CHILDREN, STEVEN AND A DAUGTER, JOHNNIE.
John: It was tough. It was tough on a lot of families.
TUKUFU: FOR A YEAR, HELEN WROTE TO THE ARMY AIRFORCE FOR MORE INFORMATION. SHE’D HEARD RUMORS GLENN HAD BEEN IN A PRISONER OF WAR CAMP. BUT THE MILITARY SAID HE’D SIMPLY FAILED TO ARRIVE AT HIS DESTINATION AND NOW WAS PRESUMED DEAD. HERB MILLER COULDN’T ACCEPT THAT HIS BROTHER HAD SIMPLY VANISHED AND THAT THERE APPEARED TO HAVE BEEN NO OFFICIAL INQUIRY.
TUKUFU: HE EVEN THOUGHT THAT GLENN MAY HAVE BEEN SECRETLY RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES
John: My father actually looked for Glenn, for years.
TUKUFU: HERB BELEIVED HIS BROTHER HAD GOTTEN CANCER AND HAD QUIETLY BEEN SPIRITED HOME FOR TREATMENT.
John: Glenn was a very dapper guy. But Glenn had lost so much weight. His tailor made uniforms hung on him. It could have been because he was ill from all the smoking. My father even went up to Oakland to see a fellow who was in the, uh, Veteran’s hospital. And uh because there was an Alton G. Miller there.
TUKUFU: And what did he find?
John: He found somebody that wasn’t Glenn. But he never really accepted the fact.
TUKUFU: Um hmm.
John: He was gone.
TUKUFU: JOHN SUGGESTS HIS FAMILY’S SCEPTICSM WAS THE RESULT OF GRIEF AND A LACK OF HARD INFORMATION.
TUKUFU: Do you feel that the questions, the issues surrounding his death have been answered?
John: Not even close. Not even close.
TUKUFU: WITH NO FULL, OFFICIAL ACCOUNTING OF WHAT HAD HAPPENED, THE MILLER FAMILY HAD BEEN LEFT CLUTCHING AT STRAWS.
John: They never found a body. They don’t really know what happened. He was gone. Just, woosh, gone
WES: I’M GONNA START WITH SOME OLD-FASHIONED DETECTIVE WORK, AND RETRACE MILLER’S STEPS. WHAT ARE THE KNOWN DETAILS AND CHRONOLOGY FROM THE DAY HE VANISHED?
WES: You know, there’s a lot of confusion and misinformation about exactly what happened to Glenn Miller. I need to find out the basic facts.
WES: THE NIGHT OF DECEMBER 14TH 1944 – THE DAY BEFORE HE VANISHED, MILLER HAD GOTTEN A PHONE CALL. FOR SEVERAL DAYS HE’D BEEN ATTEMPTING TO FLY TO PARIS. HE WAS PREPARING A BIG CHRISTMAS DAY CONCERT FOR THE SOLDIERS WHO HAD FOUGHT THEIR WAY FROM NORMANDY THROUGH NAZI-OCCUPIED EUROPE.
WES: BUT THE BAD WEATHER HAD KEPT HIM GROUNDED. ON THE PHONE THAT NIGHT, ACCORDING TO THIS ACCOUNT BY MILLER EXPERT GEOFFREY BUTCHER, WAS HIS BAND MANAGER, DON HAYNES. HE TOLD MILLER THAT AN ACQUAINTANCE, LT. COL. NORMAN BAESSELL WAS HEADING TO PARIS THE FOLLOWING DAY. BAESSEL HAD OFFERED MILLER A RIDE.
WES: THE NEXT MORNING DECEMBER 15TH, MILLER, DON HAYNES AND NORMAN BAESSELL ARRIVE AT TWINWOOD. THE WEATHER IS STILL FRIGID, BUT SHORTLY AFTER LUNCH, BAESSELL’S PLANE AND PILOT ARRIVE FROM NEARBY ALCONBURY. AS THE THREE MEN APPROACH THE WAITING C64 NORSEMAN, ITS ENGINE IS RUNNING, AND MILLER IS CLEARLY NERVOUS.
WES: The book says that it was so cold that Haines walked over to look at the thermometer on the wall of the control tower. It was thirty-four degrees. At this point, Miller is starting to maybe express some doubts about whether this is a good idea. And he says, Hainsy, even the birds are grounded today.
WES: DESPITE HIS CONCERNS, MILLER GETS ON THE NORSMAN ALONG WITH BAESSELL. ALREADY ON BOARD IS PILOT JOHN MORGAN.
WES: It’s just amazing, considering these facts that Miller, who was afraid to fly in the first place would get on a plane in this weather
WES: THE NORSEMAN TAXIS TOWARDS THE RUNWAY. AND AT 1.55 IN THE AFTERNOON, , MILLER, BAESSEL AND MORGAN TAKE OFF, HEADING FOR THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.
WES: IT’S A GRIPPING ACCOUNT, BUT THERE’S NOTHING IN THESE DETAILS THAT EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED TO MILLER. AS I READ ON, I MAKE A DISCOVERY.
WES: Yeah.
WES: IT’S A STORY ABOUT THE SO-CALLED FRIENDLY FIRE THEORY. IN THE MID 1980’S A FORMER ROYAL AIR FORCE NAVIGATOR FRED SHAW MADE THE EXTRAORDINARY CLAIM THAT HE MAY HAVE SEEN GLENN MILLER DIE.
WES: SHAW SAID A BRITISH LANCASTER HAD DROPPED ITS BOMBS OVER THE ENGLISH CHANNEL AND THAT ONE HAD DESTROYED A C-64 NORSEMAN. THE SAME KIND OF PLANE THAT GLENN MILLER HAD BEEN FLYING. IT SEEMS A LEADING BRITISH RESEARCHER NAMED ROY NESBIT HAD INVESTGATED. THIS MAY BE OUR FIRST SOLID LEAD
WES: I do think that, uh, it’s worth looking at the...this theory of friendly fire. That the RAF accidentally dropped bombs on Miller’s plane
TUKUFU: WORKING WITH THE INFORMATION WES UNCOVERED, I’VE TRACKED DOWN ROY NESBIT IN THE TOWN OF SWINDON, ABOUT 80 MILES WEST OF LONDON.
TUKUFU: When the war broke out, I was just eighteen years old.
TUKUFU:ROY IS A FORMER RAF NAVIGATOR WHO FLEW SOME 50 MISSIONS. HE SAYS THAT SOME FORTY YEARS AFTER MILLER VANISHED; THE BRITISH MINISTRY OF DEFENSE HAD BEEN ALERTED THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE ACCIDENTALLY KILLED HIM.
Roy: They had received a report, emanating from South Africa, that the navigator in Avro Lancaster returning from an aborted raid had seen the Norseman dive into the sea in what was called the Southern Jettison area.
TUKUFU:Wait. He...he actually saw it go down?
Roy: Yes, he saw, so he said, this Norseman dive into the sea.
TUKUFU:ACCORDING TO NESBIT, THE HISTORICAL BRANCH OF THE ROYAL AIRFORCE, QUIETLY SUGGESTED HE INVESTIGATE.
Roy: They thought I might be able to answer it, um, because I’d been a navigator during the war. I was familiar with the research in the Public Record Office
TUKUFU:THE BRITISH AUTHORITIES WERE CONCERNED. THE IDEA THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE ACCIDENTALLY KILLED AMERICA’S LEADING MUSICAL CELEBRITY WAS STILL POTENTIALLY EMBARRASING.
ROY: I think they wanted to get it off their backs quite frankly —
FRED SHAW: This was…
TUKUFU:THE ALLEGED EYE-WITNESS FRED SHAW WAS LIVING IN SOUTH AFRICA. THE INVESTIGATOR, ROY NESBITT, ARRANGED FOR HIM TO BE INTERVIEWED ON CAMERA. SHAW DESCRIBED HOW THAT DECEMBER 15TH HIS 4-ENGINED AVRO LANCASTER HAD SET OUT TO BOMB THE GERMAN CITY OF SIEGEN. BUT THE WEATHER HAD BEEN TERRIBLE, AND THE OPERATION WAS ABORTED MID-FLIGHT.
FRED SHAW: Anyway we turned around. The whole stream of Lancasters. There were well over a hundred.
TUKUFU: THE LANCASTER NEEDED TO GET RID OF ITS BOMBS BEFORE IT COULD LAND AND SHAW WAS CURIOUS.
FRED SHAW: Now I’d never seen a bomb explode from the air before, so I left my seat, and put my head into the little observation blister. From where I could look vertically downwards.
TUKUFU:ROY’S PLANE HAD BEEN CARRYING GIANT BOMBS KNOWN AS ‘BLOCKBUSTERS’, OR ‘COOKIES’, DESIGNED TO FIREBOMB GERMAN CITIES.
Roy: Four thousand pound high explosive bombs.
TUKUFU: That’s a pretty big bomb.
Roy: It’s a very big bomb indeed. It was designed to blast all the buildings.
TUKUFU: THIS WAS A DAYLIGHT RAID AND SHAW WANTED TO WATCH AS THE BIG BOMBS WERE JETTISONED.
FRED SHAW: Now, just before we dropped our load, my bomb aimer called up and said “They’re going to off. They’re exploding”
FRED SHAW: And there sure enough, the cookies, were exploding. And i could see the blast waves radiating outwards like shimmering gray circles.
TUKUFU: SHAW SAID HE WAS STUNNED AT WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.
FRED SHAW: As I was watching I saw an aircraft. The bomb aimer said there’s a kite down there, and I looked and I saw a small high-winged mono-plane which I recognized immediately as a NorduynNorseman.
Roy: He recognized the Norseman, because he had trained in Canada where the Norseman was a familiar sight.
TUKUFU: Um hmm.
Roy: So he could recognize it immediately.
TUKUFU: HE SAID THE BLAST WAVE FROM ONE OF THE EXPLODING BOMBS CAUSED THE SMALL PLANE TO CRASH.
FRED SHAW: As I watched him, just before he got to the leading edge of the wing, I saw him do a stalled turn to port and go straight into the drink. There was a white splash and that was it.
TUKUFU: SHAW CLAIMED IT WAS YEARS LATER, AFTER WATCHING THE 1954 MOVIE “THE GLENN MILLER STORY”, THAT HE PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER. HE SUDDENLY REALIZED HE MAY HAVE SEEN GLENN MILLER DIE. SHAW WENT PUBLIC WITH HIS ASTONISHING STORY. ROY NESBIT’S JOB WAS TO SEE IF THE STORY LINED UP WITH THE KNOWN FACTS.
TUKUFU: So, what you needed to do is know when those planes had turned around, what time. And then what time, uh, Glenn Miller’s plane left the airstrip.
Roy: I had to work out the speed in which it would reach the jettisons area. I had to work out the time the Lancaster involved landed
TUKUFU: Okay.
Roy: ...and work it backwards to the jettisons area. And I needed to plot it all out.
TUKUFU: What is it that gave you the qualifications to make these kinds of calculations?
Roy: Well, I had been a navigator, a navigation instructor. I still had all my old instruments. I knew exactly how to do it.
TUKUFU:THE LOG BOOK HAD THE PLANE RETURNING AT 14:20 HOURS. NESBIT BELIEVED THIS WAS GREENWICH MEANTIME; LOCAL TIME WAS AN HOUR LATER, 15.20 OR TWENTY MINUTES PAST THREE. THIS IS A CRUCIAL BIT OF INFORMATION
TUKUFU:THE BOMBERS HAD BEEN FLYING AT 225 MILES AN HOUR. WORKING BACKWARDS, NESBITT CALCULATED THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN OVER THE SOUTHERN JETTISON ZONE 38 MINUTES EARLIER, AT EIGHTEEN MINUTES TO THREE.
TUKUFU: MILLER’S NORSEMAN HAD LEFT TWINWOOD AT FIVE MINUTES TO TWO. Its ESTIMATED AIRSPEED WAS 158 MILES AN HOUR.
TUKUFU: IT WAS CLOSE. BUT ROY’S CALCULATIONS SHOWED MILLER’S PLANE WOULD HAVE ARRIVED AT THE JETTISON ZONE AT EXACTLY EIGHTEEN MINUTES TO THREE. THAT WAS JUST AS THE BOMBERS WERE LEAVING THE SAME LOCATION
Roy: So once they coincided, it seemed to me.... It seemed to me very significant indeed.
TUKUFU: So why didn’t Shaw and the gunner report this at the time it happened?
Roy: Because, it was an aborted raid. And, in an aborted raid there was no debriefing. But, even if they had reported it. I don’t suppose anything would have been done. I saw things in the war that...that I tried to report, and nobody took any notice.
TUKUFU: So they would have had no reason to report this?