What Really Happened to Glenn Miller?

I have been tootling around the Airborne Troop Carrier Facebook Group and for some reason I was reminded of a conversation I had many years ago with a fellow named Michael N. Ingrisano Jr.  Mike was a WWII veteran. He served with the 316th. Troop Carrier Group and the 37th. Squadron. My father was also a Troop Carrier guy having served in the 315th. Troop Carrier Group and the 34th Squadron. Mike and my father both participated in just about all the same operations. 

Mike, who was a NCO and radio operator was also a staunch defender of the Troop Carrier Pilots who dropped the Paratroopers on D-Day against the accusations, primarily from the 101st Airborne that they were either too high or too low and too fast when dropped. I used to correspond with Mike about those allegations and the part Stephen Ambrose played in perpetuating them. Ambrose promised a dozen times to correct the record but died without making those corrections.

Michael Ingrisano, Jr 

Mike was also helping me understand some of the symbols used on Dad’s sortie record. It was during those conversations that he voiced his skepticism about how Glenn Miller, the famous band leader, died during the war. I related to him that my Dad seemed equally skeptical and that he flew the band many times between London and Paris.

My Dad was a Crew Chief and Flight engineer in his official combat role but he was also an NCO pilot.  Dad flew the aircraft frequently in and around the Spanhoe area of England. Mostly as one would drive a customers car to “road test” to make sure it was ready for operations. He had more flight time than most of the pilots in his squadron. But I digress.

Major Glenn Miller was just 40 years old and near the height of his fame as leader of the Army Air Force band, when he disappeared on Dec. 15, 1944, though the United States military didn't announce the news until Dec. 24.At any rate recent revelations and documents (2019) around the death of Glenn Miller have brought the subject back to the forefront of my mind. 

Over the years several stories arose about Miller's death.  The four most prominent theories over the years were:

• Miller never boarded the plane, but was assassinated after Gen. Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower sent him on a secret mission one or two days earlier to negotiate a surrender from Nazi Germany. 
• He made it to Paris, where he died of a heart attack in a bordello.
• The small plane he was on was destroyed by bombs jettisoned from a phalanx of Allied bombers passing overhead on their way back from an aborted mission over Germany.
• The small plane went down due to icing.

Glenn Miller

I remember meeting with a group of WWII Troop Carrier pilots in Branson, Missouri at one of the last reunions of the 315th Troop Carrier Group. I learned the story of Gussie Perkins flying his C-47 through Tower Bridge.  His picture was in English history books for years. That was quiet a story. In fact, that was largely what these reunions were about . . . namely, keeping these men’s stories alive. I can only wish I had recorded them.  I suppose I was just too focused getting their memories of my Dad.

It wasn't long before a group I was sitting at that reunion turned their attention to the band leader Glenn Miller and in their words, "His supposed death in the English Channel." Not a man there believed the "official" story of how Miller died. They did think the assassination theory had merit but most felt he had probably died of something like cancer. One think was certain . . . . they didn't buy the "official" story. It seemed to me this might have been an ongoing conversation from one reunion to the next.

All my father ever said about the official report of Miller's death was, "Son don't believe everything in an "official" Army report. Keep in mind that with the Army it is all about a report not necessarily the truth. If the truth and needs of the Army coincide that was good but sometimes the truth was sacrificed to high command's needs. The need of the Army always trumps the truth. It is the report that matters" I think you get what he was implying. Whatever else he thought about the issue of “official” report on Miller’s death, well, it went with him to his grave. I think this has been illustrated by the story told in the movie, "The Last Full Measure."

I  knew that 34 TC Squadron of the 315 Group often flew the Miller Band and their instruments back and forth between England and Paris. My father, who was a member of that Squadron, had become friends with Broderick Crawford, the band's announcer for a short while during the war. Crawford later ended up in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.  But for a while he was in London.   He and Dad frequently did Pub Crawls together. My mother confirmed this friendship. She always complained that the one thing you could always count on with Broderick around was that by the end of the night everyone would be, in  her words, "Blind Drunk." It also explained why we HAD to watch the TV program Highway Patrol in which Crawford stared.

At any rate, because I knew of the connection I was curious as to what the men of the 315th TC Group thought happened to Miller. Oh, at first, they gave me the handful of the popular stories.  Finally it came to this:  They thought, looking back, that he might have had a heart attack or cancer. They said he rarely flew with the band but often would see them off.  They seemed to agree that he didn’t look well.  In fact, he seemed to them to have lost a lot of weight and just generally didn't look well.  The consensus was he got sick and died in London or perhaps Paris.

Type of Plane in which Miller supposedly died

Additionally, they claimed that the plane he supposedly was in when it crashed into the English Channel was sitting at an airfield in France where they frequently were (maybe Amiens France) more than a week after his "supposed" crash.

But the thing that really got my attention was when one of the pilots said, (This is all paraphrase) "All I can tell you is what I know for a fact. I know for a fact that John Morgan didn't die in any plane crash because I saw him in New York after the war. John Morgan was the pilot of Miller’s small plane and was supposedly killed in the same crash).

I recall someone, a guest like me, asking him how he knew it was John Morgan. He replied, "I met him  early in the war and we got on pretty good." Others confirmed that relationship. Sort of like my Dad and Broderick Crawford. . . . they were kind of war buddies or maybe drinking buddies or both. He said, "We talked for a few minutes and agreed to meet at some eating place for lunch the next day. He never showed and I never saw him again."

He went on to say when I called his name as I walked up to him he nearly "jumped out of his skin." "Looking back I think that's probably because he had changed his name and was surprised to hear someone call him by his birth name." 

These guys believed back then that Miller died of some sort of health issue and that the crash story was used to cover up that fact. At any rate that's the story those men told then and I have no reason to doubt them. It is interesting that Miller's own brother has recently acknowledge that Miller confided in him that his health was failing in 1944. Miller smoked heavily and newly found Glenn Miller diaries seem to confirm that.

Just a side note: I remember Mike Ingrisano and I talking about this. He related that while researching some archives he found in a mislabeled box a document tracer number for a classified document that related to the Miller death. He said when he went to try and get the document the clerk told him it was there but too late in the day to retrieve it but if he came back in the late morning it should be ready. When he returned he was told by a different clerk that the document was indeed there but that it could not be released as it was still classified. Mike, was as would be expected, a bit skeptical. I'm betting that document number is still in his papers.

Mike, an NCO and not a pilot himself, was a ferocious defender of the actions of WWII Troop Carrier Pilots and crews during the Normandy Invasion in 1944. I believe he about drove Stephen Ambrose nuts. Mike died in 2012 less than 1 month short of his 91st birthday.

Do I know the truth about Glenn Miller's death. The straight up answer is no! Do I believe the "official" Army account of Glenn  Miller's death? The answer again is a resounding NO!  

Here is what I think. I think somewhere in the files of the WWII military files sets the true story.  Here is what I think that story is:

Glenn Miller who was a major motivational tool of the U.S. Army. In fact his role was so important that Hitler had put a bounty on him.  Because we know that Miller was a heavy smoker I am certain he had cancer of some sort. I believe the men of the 34th TC SQ when they noticed over time the change in his health evidenced by loss of weight. His own brother confided as much. I have no reason to doubt the stories of the 315 TC GP veterans about seeing John Morgan in New York after the war.

Miller either died of natural causes and for reasons that we do not know because that information is still classified and the Army brass felt the need to manufacture a story that he somehow died in a war accident and that his body was never recovered from the English Channel.  Another possibility is that because of the progression of some illness Miller committed suicide. Now that would certainly because for a cover story.

I know, it makes no sense. What could possibly be gained by such a twisted tail of intrigue? I certainly don't know.  Perhaps the OSS was involved but why?   They were involved in all sorts of screwy operations that today seem a little odd even for that time.  Does it even matter?  Well, only if you want the story straight. The Army, and the government in general, is always hiding something when they concoct these kinds of stories. This one will, like the death of General Patton, never go away because the "official" stories just do not make sense in the context of their times.

Then again, maybe that fuel line freezing theory is correct. After all, that is what is in the final official government papers made public thus far.

What do you think happened?