Warbird Information Exchange

Has anybody heard anything about this theory of Glenn Miller's disappearance before?

Here’s one theory I had never heard until 3 weeks ago.

I was visiting my Uncle in Illinois and we were at dinner and he told me something that happened to him in WWII.


He was a U.S. Army private in Germany at the end of the war. He was sent to a rest area in France where he ran into another soldier who had been in an anti-aircraft unit. As they became friendly, my uncle asked if he had shot down a lot of aircraft. The man said not really, but they did shoot down one plane back a bit that was weird.

It seems they were on the coast of France and an aircraft approached at night and it did not answer the IFF identification signal required. After two more attempts, the Commanding Officer ordered the unit to open fire. The aircraft was shot down and everyone was very excited.

After a few days, the unit realized they were not getting any recognition or commendation for the shoot down. They questioned the Commanding Officer and he stated that they weren’t getting a commendation and to keep quite about it, as they had shot down a plane carrying Glenn Miller.


Now, I have never heard this before. It sounds plausible, as even some of the top ace fighter pilots were shot down by friendly anti-aircraft fire.

My Uncle is in full control of his faculties and has no reason to make this up. I immediately asked him if knew who the man was who told him this or even what unit the soldier had been with, but he couldn’t remember after all these years. After the war, my uncle worked in the defense industry working in classified chemical production, so he had top secret clearance for the work he was doing and would never, and still won’t, tell me what he actually did for a living.


Has anybody ever heard of this theory before?

I'm trying to stir the pot, and my Uncle almost said this in passing as we were talking, so don't go flaming me for posting this. I'm just looking to see if anyone has heard this version before.

Thanks.

Jerry

_________________
"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Never heard that one, only saw the tv special that British bombers jettison bombs onto Millers plane over the channel.

_________________
Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

I don't believe him. Let's torture him to be sure

You know, the fw hypothesis we do have about Miller's death aren't very strong. Your uncle could indeed have been involved in a shootdown. You should see if he can remember the locale, and maybe we could do some cross indexing.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Some very careful research by Roy Nesbitt of Aeroplane magazine some years ago was able to show that the most likely explanation was Miller's Norseman was hit by jettisoned bombs from a Lancaster, and the aircraft hit was observed by the Lancaster's tail gunner, although he could not specify the type he thinks he saw go down.

The reason it wasn't put together as a hypothesis before was that the timings of the loss and reported incident didn't tie up, until Roy was able to show that the time zones in use put both aircraft in the same place at times that were reported as different...

Jerry, I don't think your uncles' contact's story is likely to hold water as the aircraft 'disappeared' - there was no aircraft found, bodies or wreckage. It is possible a coastal until could shot down an aircraft into the sea, which then completely disappears, BUT they know what it was... (?!) Hmmm.

AFAIK most ack ack units didn't have IFF recognition equipment - but I could be wrong. They were hardly famous for holding fire...

Roy found no accounts of this story in his research - and he's one of the best in the job, having done some excellent investigations like this and the loss of Amy Johnson, and while he might be wrong, his scenario is based on known facts, a conceivable scenario and first hand accounts.

While it's quite possible that an ack-ack unit did shoot down an allied aircraft in the scenario told, which then got 'joined up' in accounts with the most famous missing person.

Finally, if you'd shot down Glenn Miller, you'd keep it quiet wouldn't you?

Not to pooh-pooh your uncles' story, just a bit of research analysis. HTH.

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com