Glenn Miller — Swing Era Bandleader's Plane Vanishes Over English Channel

On December 15, 1944, Major Glenn Miller — the most popular big band leader in the United States and director of the Army Air Forces Band — boarded a small Norseman aircraft at Twinwood Farm airfield in England bound for Paris, where he was to prepare for a concert tour for recently liberated France. The aircraft was never seen again. Miller had become one of the most famous musicians in America with songs like In the Mood, Moonlight Serenade, and Pennsylvania 6-5000. After America entered the war, he disbanded his civilian orchestra and enlisted, forming the Army Air Forces Band that toured military bases and broadcast programs to boost morale. The Paris concert was to be his largest wartime event. The single-engine UC-64 Norseman disappeared over the English Channel in overcast conditions. No distress call was received. No wreckage was ever found. No definitive explanation for the loss has been established. Theories have included: shot down by RAF bombers jettisoning their bomb loads as they returned from an aborted mission over Germany; shot down by a German aircraft; mechanical failure; and ice in the carburetor causing engine failure. In 1985, a British team claimed to have located wreckage of the Norseman on the Channel floor, but the claim has not been substantiated. Glenn Miller remains officially listed as missing in action.