TERRE HAUTE —
I just finished a book called “The Glenn Miller Conspiracy,” written by Hunton Downs, Lt. Col. U.S. Army, Ret. It was supposed to solve the mystery of what really happened to Major Glenn Miller, USAAF.
The author claims Glenn Miller was involved in a huge conspiracy to get World War II over sooner than what was expected. He had some interesting stories. Miller had been broadcasting to German troops in their native tongue and playing phonograph records of his band. Of course, Miller was popular in Germany before the war and the civilians who heard his war-time broadcasts loved him that much more because he spoke in German.
The conspiracy was supposed to be an agreement between Bradley and Eisenhower and the old-line generals of the German army. It was fairly simple … they would make sure Hitler was out of the way, declare a new German government, and surrender their troops to the British and Americans. The 101st Airborne and 82nd Airborne would parachute into Berlin to take care of the SS troops there. They would leave the Eastern front to be handled by the Russians. This was, obviously, a large secret so our Russian allies would not know.
According to Lt. Col. Downs, Miller flew into Germany to Von Rundstedt Headquarters but was betrayed by a spy in Supreme Allied Headquarters. He was beaten severely and taken by German Air Force secret aircraft to a house of prostitution in Paris the SS had purchased in 1935. (His body was found there by American MP’s on a routine patrol.) The arrangement between Von Rundstedt and Allied Headquarters led to no radar and no observation flights, and would lead to a German attack that became the Battle of the Bulge.
Other supposedly true stories were Glenn had been found in the arms of a French woman and shot by her husband. The government story is his aircraft went down in the English Channel. It is, blatantly, not true. It has been more than 60 years since the war ended, and there is no actual body of Glenn Miller to be found. (The tombstone in Arlington Cemetery is on a plot that has never held a body.)
In this amount of space, it’s difficult to write this deeply involved story. But one thing stands out … somebody knows what happened to America’s most popular bandleader. After all this time, why is this story being kept a secret?
What really happened to Glenn Miller?
Ronn Mott, a longtime radio personality in Terre Haute, writes commentaries for the Tribune-Star. His pieces are published online Tuesday and Thursday on Tribstar.com, and in the print and online editions on Saturday.
Opinion Columns
RON MOTT: The Glenn Miller mystery
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