Reader Review: The Glenn Miller Conspiracy

When Glenn Miller was declared lost at sea in December 1944, he was one of the most famous men in the world. As the leader of one of America’s most popular big bands, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, he brought much-needed entertainment during a dark period with hits such as Chattanooga Choo Choo, In the Mood and Little Brown Jug. For many, Miller’s music was the soundtrack to their war and it was with great sadness that the world learned of his death. Miller had enlisted in the US Military in 1942 and was later assigned to the Army Air Force (AAF). Miller’s body was never found and, as with many deceased icons, conspiracy theories soon emerged over his death.

Hunton Downs, a former US Colonel who served in the Second World War and later worked as a journalist, examined these theories for over fifty years. He finally rejects the traditionally accepted theory that Miller’s plane disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel whilst he was travelling to entertain American troops in France and concludes that Miller was killed by Nazis whilst working undercover in France.

The Glenn Miller Conspiracy has been heavily criticised by numerous writers, including representatives of the Glenn Miller Trust and The Glenn Miller Archives (University of Colorado). Sadly, Hunton Downs is unable to defend his arguments: he died earlier this year in North Carolina, aged 91.

The basis for the first part of the argument is the claim that Miller’s plane did not set off from RAF Twinwood Farm in Clapham on December 15^th, 1944. The evidence for his departure from Twinwood (diaries of Captain Don Haynes) seems questionable, but Downs’ argument is not helped by his inadequate use of sources.

Downs claims that Glenn Miller was of German origin, his Amish family having originally settled in the Amana Colonies of Iowa, and that he was chosen by Eisenhower (who was also of German ancestry) to work for the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) because he spoke German. The Glenn Miller orchestra did indeed perform German language programmes in late 1944, but even Hunton Downs admits that Miller did not sound like a native German speaker. Miller is unlikely, therefore, to have been chosen for secret service work as a result of his German-speaking abilities.

A US genealogist colleague of mine traced the Miller family back for three generations and discovered that Glenn was certainly not of recent German ancestry. His family never lived in the Amana area of Iowa and the family surname was always Miller, not Mueller as Downs argues. In fact, Glenn Miller’s paternal grandmother was Irish.

Downs’ responses to the counterarguments to his theories are also unconvincing. The Glenn Miller Trust argues, for example, that Miller was a member of the American Air Force rather than of the Office of Strategic Services. This can be checked in the information about all OSS personnel, which was declassified in 2007 and 2008; but Downs does not mention this. On the whole, the author’s research is not accurately documented and his sources are not properly referenced - if at all. The book also has no index and the narrative is confused. A record pertaining to David Niven, for example, is described as being ‘posted in the RAF Museum of Croydon, England [...] part of the Public Record Office, the National Archives.’ However, Britain's main RAF museum is in Hendon and is separate from The National Archives in Kew.

Many questions remain over Miller’s death. Did Captain Don Haynes record the truth in his diaries and did Miller, as Haynes claims, fly from Twinwood Farm on December 15^th, 1944? Was the UC-64 Norseman, discovered by a diver in the English Channel in 1985, the aeroplane on which Miller was travelling? Was Miller’s body discovered in France and the remains interred in the USA? Why did his younger brother, Herb, state in 1983 that Miller ‘did not died in a plane crash over the Channel but from lung cancer in a hospital’ in Ohio? The Glenn Miller Conspiracy is simply not the book to provide any of the answers to these questions.

The Glenn Miller Conspiracy, Hunton Downs (JR Books)

Emma Jolly is a professional genealogist and historical researcher. She is the author of Family History for Kids.