LOSS OF GLENN MILLER | THE SECOND WORLD WAR
On 15 December 1944, popular bandleader Maj. Glenn Miller, assigned to Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), boarded an Eighth Air Force Service Command (VIII AFSC) Noorduyn C-64 Norseman aircraft at the RAF Twinwood aerodrome, Bedfordshire. Piloted by Flight Officer John Robert Stuart Morgan, a former RCAF sergeant pilot, the aircraft was destined for Villacoublay, France. Miller had accepted an invitation from Lt. Col. Norman Baessell, liaison officer for VIII AFSC with the U.S. Strategic and Tactical Air Forces Europe, to accompany him on the routine flight, the aircraft departing Twinwood at 13:55 (British Summer Time). Later, an American C-64 was observed passing over Beachy Head between 14:30 and 14:45 (BST). Then, the aircraft and its occupants simply vanished, with SHAEF not knowing that Miller was aboard the aircraft until 18 December. The Eighth Air Force launched a search and an inquiry on 19 December, but with the absence of evidence to the contrary, they concluded that a catastrophic event had occurred over the English Channel It was determined that the probable causes of the accident was pilot disorientation, mechanical fa…
