Learn Our History Today: On December 15, 1944, during World War II, famous bandleader Glenn Miller went missing over the English Channel while flying from England to France. It is nearly impossible to overstate the success which Glenn Miller and his orchestra achieved during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Their music was and still is the most well-known of the late swing era, with the songs In The Mood (1939), Tuxedo Junction (1939), Chattanooga Choo Choo (1941), and Moonlight Serenade (1939) all becoming unprecedented smash hits. However, regardless of his success, when America entered World War II in 1941, Glenn Miller decided to leave his musical career at its peak and do his patriotic duty by serving in the military. The most famous star in American pop-music joined the Army Air Force, where he was immediately appointed the leader of a USAAF band. Gathering together more than fifty performers, Miller and his new band departed to the European Theater in summer 1944, giving hundreds of performances to U.S. soldiers there. Miller was loved by the troops, and they flocked to hear him and his band play. The immense report Miller had with the troops prompted General James Doolittle, the leader of the famed “Doolittle Raid, to write to him, Next to a letter from home, Captain Miller, your organization is the greatest morale builder in the European Theater of Operations. It would be on one such moral building mission to France that Miller would lose his life. On December 15, Glenn Miller boarded a single engine plane bound for France, where he hoped to entertain U.S. soldiers who had recently captured Paris. Over the English Channel, Miller’s plane simply vanished, with no wreckage ever being found. His official military status was and still is listed as Missing in Action.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 15:20:49 +0000
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