Jump to content

Bandleader Glenn Miller’s doomed plane possibly uncovered decades after disappearing during WWII


aznation
 Share

Recommended Posts

The mystery behind what happened to Glenn Miller and his plane during World War II may finally be solved.

 

People magazine recently reported a retired trawlerman from England is “utterly convinced” he pulled up the wreck of the famed American bandleader’s aircraft in his fishing net 32 years ago. And now, U.S.-based historical aircraft researchers from TIGHAR say his account is “totally credible.”

 

 

To read more => https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/bandleader-glenn-millers-doomed-plane-possibly-uncovered-decades-after-disappearing-during-wwii

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
General Apathy

The mystery behind what happened to Glenn Miller and his plane during World War II may finally be solved.

 

People magazine recently reported a retired trawlerman from England is utterly convinced he pulled up the wreck of the famed American bandleaders aircraft in his fishing net 32 years ago. And now, U.S.-based historical aircraft researchers from TIGHAR say his account is totally credible.

 

 

To read more => https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/bandleader-glenn-millers-doomed-plane-possibly-uncovered-decades-after-disappearing-during-wwii

.

Hi aznation, about twenty years ago a dealer friend in the US had several boxes amounting to approximately 4,000 WWII photographs taken by the Adjutant at an American Photo-recon airfield in the UK. As it was a photo-recon unit then film stock was plentiful, it was a fascinating collection all related to one unit. Amongst the many images were various Hollywood stars and Glenn Millar with a USO entertainments show. I suggested to the friend that we do a fantastic photographic record of this base and using the attached Adjutants note, he said that he was going to sell them all individually as he considered that this one unpublished shot of Glenn Millar would fetch 200 dollars on eBay. He went ahead and sold them all off and gave me about twenty images that didn't sell on eBay, amongst the ones he gave me was this Norseman aircraft, as it was the type of plane that Miller was in when he disappeared I was hoping that the tail number would correspond to Millers aircraft, sadly it didn't.

 

However while I mention this photo-recon unit take a look at this short documentary on Youtube regarding one of the photo-recon Spitfires that crash landed upon returning from filming Berlin alone, the pilot won the silver star. I can watch this many times over.

 

 

lewis

 

.post-344-0-74766700-1548782779_thumb.jpeg

 

 

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General Apathy,

 

That's cool that you have a photo of a Norseman. I watched the video all the way through and just seeing the man's face when he sees the footage of himself made me smile. He was certainly surprised. By the way, it's amazing to think that he flew as far as he did into enemy territory without any weapons, by himself, and making as many passes over target area to take pictures. Amazing courage I'd say. Thank you for sharing that video and picture. That was very cool. - - Matt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General Apathy

General Apathy,

 

That's cool that you have a photo of a Norseman. I watched the video all the way through and just seeing the man's face when he sees the footage of himself made me smile. He was certainly surprised. By the way, it's amazing to think that he flew as far as he did into enemy territory without any weapons, by himself, and making as many passes over target area to take pictures. Amazing courage I'd say. Thank you for sharing that video and picture. That was very cool. - - Matt

.

.

Hi Matt, a pleasure, nice to be able to put them before you, as you say a time of great bravery and foolhardy chances. Watching the video clip of the Spitfire I have been able to see the Utah beach foreshore, exactly where the present day Utah beach museum is situated, and just ten clicks from my house. The Adjutants images of the base, people, vehicles, aircraft, towns and villages were just phenomenal, the adjutant had written notes and names on the rear of most of the images. So sad that they were broken up if it had been mine I would have done something as a tribute to all the airmen and servicemen at this one base.

 

 

lewis.

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Lewis, I agree that the images should've been kept together. It is sad to see that the 4000 plus images that the Adjutant took were sold off individually. I wish you had been able to obtain them all. Water over the bridge now I guess. Take care...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great show on the 944.

 

I don't know what it is about history comming full circle but stuff like this brings tears to my eyes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General Apathy

Hi Lewis, I agree that the images should've been kept together. It is sad to see that the 4000 plus images that the Adjutant took were sold off individually. I wish you had been able to obtain them all. Water over the bridge now I guess. Take care...

.

Hi aznation, well you peaked my interest coming back so quickly, I was off to bed but I just tried to get quick shots of a couple of the Adjutants photos.

 

shot of American P-38 photo-recon buzzing the runway wheels up.

 

Lewis.

 

.post-344-0-82983600-1548796807.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General Apathy

Hi Lewis, I agree that the images should've been kept together. It is sad to see that the 4000 plus images that the Adjutant took were sold off individually. I wish you had been able to obtain them all. Water over the bridge now I guess. Take care...

.

Hi aznation, another shot showing the comparison between the British and American aircraft used for reconnaissance.

 

 

lewis

 

.post-344-0-46472100-1548797036.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General Apathy

Great show on the 944.

 

I don't know what it is about history comming full circle but stuff like this brings tears to my eyes.

.

Hi Peter, yes I love that clip its poignant and sad that this generation have passed or are passing, history is great but theres no future in it . . . . . . . . tomorrow I will try and post you a link on my own blog rather than use up the space here which it has no relation to, I'm sure that will bring a tear to your eyes at the end.

 

lewis.

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General Apathy

.

wow Spooky . . . . . . . .

 

before closing down for the night I just ran back up the page to have another look at the Norseman on post 3 and see if anyone had downloaded the image. As my cursor hit the photo of the Norseman the radio announced an evening of Glenn Miller tunes tomorrow night . . . . . . . . . . time for bed methinks.

 

 

lewis.

 

.post-344-0-59136600-1548797920_thumb.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic film! Love it everytime I see it. What a great story. The surprise of LtCol Blyth was wonderful to see! It would also be great if they found the Glenn Miller wreckage. Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

History is all about the future. And I wish I could find a way to relate to Owen!!

 

Owen, we are brothers but it doesn't look that way at this moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the additional pics Lewis. I love both the Spitfire and the P-38 Lightning. I've put together models of both when I was a kid. Both great planes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

.

Hi Peter, yes I love that clip its poignant and sad that this generation have passed or are passing, history is great but theres no future in it . . . . . . . . tomorrow I will try and post you a link on my own blog rather than use up the space here which it has no relation to, I'm sure that will bring a tear to your eyes at the end.

 

lewis.

 

.

let me know. If anyone can make me cry (and is not a woman) it's you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General Apathy

Hi Lewis, I agree that the images should've been kept together. It is sad to see that the 4000 plus images that the Adjutant took were sold off individually. I wish you had been able to obtain them all. Water over the bridge now I guess. Take care...

.

Hi Matt, well your last sentence ' water over the bridge ' is for me the second spooky occurrence in your thread, the first as I mentioned before was having my cursor held above the photo of the Norseman aircraft and across the room my radio announced an evening of Glen Miller the following evening.

 

So back to your mention of Water over the Bridge, as I previously said the Adjutant took thousands of photos and one of the few that I inherited involves a bridge ???. He photographed an eighty year old sign detailing the costs of traffic and farm stock across the bridge, and it shows the passion he put into his collection of photographs that he typed out the details seen on the board. He took his photographs eighty years since the erection of the sign, I also now find it strange that I should be sharing these images almost eighty years later since he took his images.

 

p.s. as I sit here now my mind throws forth, given the details he added to his photographs did he envisage a book of his own at the end of the war, maybe a unit history which was never completed, it really grieves me that all that work was lost when split for a few quick dollars in sales.

 

lewis.

 

.post-344-0-85555800-1549014652_thumb.jpeg

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General Apathy

.

Water over the Bridge continued. . . . . . . . . .

 

The details of the sign as typed out by the Adjutant.

 

 

Lewis.

 

.post-344-0-41756400-1549014840_thumb.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No doubt the Adjutant was a very detailed oriented man. Someone who'd taken the time to manually type out all that information regarding one photograph was surely interested in preserving the history of it. Also just thinking that he had 4000 photographs, most of which probably included as much detail, he surely intended all of it for some purpose after the war. It's everyones loss that such history has been broken up and sold off. How unfortunate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

.

Hi aznation, about twenty years ago a dealer friend in the US had several boxes amounting to approximately 4,000 WWII photographs taken by the Adjutant at an American Photo-recon airfield in the UK. As it was a photo-recon unit then film stock was plentiful, it was a fascinating collection all related to one unit. Amongst the many images were various Hollywood stars and Glenn Millar with a USO entertainments show. I suggested to the friend that we do a fantastic photographic record of this base and using the attached Adjutants note, he said that he was going to sell them all individually as he considered that this one unpublished shot of Glenn Millar would fetch 200 dollars on eBay. He went ahead and sold them all off and gave me about twenty images that didn't sell on eBay, amongst the ones he gave me was this Norseman aircraft, as it was the type of plane that Miller was in when he disappeared I was hoping that the tail number would correspond to Millers aircraft, sadly it didn't.

 

However while I mention this photo-recon unit take a look at this short documentary on Youtube regarding one of the photo-recon Spitfires that crash landed upon returning from filming Berlin alone, the pilot won the silver star. I can watch this many times over.

 

 

lewis

 

.attachicon.giffullsizeoutput_d18.jpeg

 

 

 

.

Wow, just discovered this thread and what a great documentary and above all what a great pilot. Thanks for putting this up. Just made my day.

 

Rene

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...