EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY UPDATE: 1944-2024
(Artwork by Keith Hill)
GLENN MILLER DISAPPEARANCE
In August 2020, The Daily Express of London headlined “World War 2 Mystery: Glenn Miller’s plane could be found within a three-mile radius.” The breaking news reported aviation archeology group TIGHAR “and Dennis Spragg, who authored the book Glenn Miller Declassified, suspect that the remains of the airplane may lie within a three-square mile radius of the English Channel.” This is where a fisherman claimed to have pulled up the wreckage of the “Glenn Miller airplane” during the 1980s. Other media reports continue to erroneously suggest this claim has “solved” the Glenn Miller disappearance. None of these stories accurately describe the actual facts or my point of view. The Media describe the Eighth Air Force Service Command C-64A Noorduyn “Norseman” airplane, serial number 44-70285. On December 15, 1944, Major Glenn Miller boarded that airplane as a passenger. He was flying from RAF Twinwood aerodrome near Bedford, England to Villacoublay aerodrome, Versailles, France. The airplane departed at 1:55 p.m. and was never seen again.
ACTUAL STATUS OF INQUIRY
As Glenn Miller’s authorized biographer and archivist, I am incredibly interested in any professional effort to locate the airplane’s remains. Over the years, it has been my pleasure to assist TIGHAR. Moreover, they concur with Glenn Miller Declassified. The aircraft disappeared over the English Channel due to pilot error, mechanical failure, and poor weather. The air transport corridor that the military required the pilot to fly was between Langney Point (Beachy Head) and St. Valery, France. Portland Bill is about 150 miles or 240 kilometers west of Beachy Head. This unlikely possibility does not “solve” the Glenn Miller disappearance.
I don’t wish to rule anything out. It is not impossible that the pilot was far off course. However, it is not probable that the aircraft was primarily intact, as the fisherman claimed. But then inexplicably threw it back in! The Norseman was more likely to have disintegrated on impact. Moreover, this is more likely to have happened on or closer to the required air corridor. Firstly, after forty years of immersion, the report of an intact airplane is highly unlikely. Secondly, after eighty years of immersion, it is virtually impossible. There is also the question of the airplane’s color. The fisherman reported factory silver matte paint. But 1944 eyewitnesses and documentation suggest the aircraft had theater-required olive-gray paint.
THERE IS NO MYSTERY
realistically, what anyone can find is debris. This potentially consists of the Pratt & Whitney engine, part of the aluminum cabin and some of the steel frame. The fabric and lightweight Sitka Spruce wood wings and fuselage are long gone. There is no mystery about Glenn Miller’s disappearance. The only question is where is the debris. If located, it is important to note that the engine was unique to the C-64. In addition, airplane #44-70285 is the only C-64 that crashed in the English Channel. Certainly, the task of finding the Glenn Miller airplane is a long shot. But there is no harm in verifying all claims, however improbable. Someone might someday find the remains. Locating the debris would at last end all doubt. Here are links to interviews about the Disappearance of Glenn Miller. These include my appearance with Ric Gillespie of TIGHAR on the History Channel’s “UnXplained” with William Shatner. and my interview with the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, VA. Discover the real Glenn Miller in the definitive biography Glenn Miller Declassified:
His plane disappeared just prior to the moment I was born on December 15, 1944. I have never displayed any musical ability. As a Vietnam vet I have always preferred Jimi Hendrix.
Dennis, I am just now re-reading your excellent book, having left it at a daughter’s home on the east coast of the U.S. where I left it two years ago.