Please click to comment on Reddit.Major Glen Miller flew out of Templehof Airport the morning after a special Halloween Concert in which his Army Air Force Band had performed live Jazz Music for the US Troops that had been stationed in Berlin ever since the Soviet Blockade had begun in June.

It was the most dangerous journey the Band had taken since the fateful flight to Paris in December 1944. Ordered by General Eisenhower to leave RAF Twinwood Farm "on or about the 15th", an unfortunate choice of timing combined with the actions of their rookie pilot who had misread the instruments of their single-engine Noorduyn Norseman bush plane.

During their flight over the English Channel, they had very nearly wandered into a jettison zone where no less than one hundred and thirty-eight Lancaster bombers were about to release approximately one hundred thousand incendiaries in a designated area before landing. Fortunately, tragedy was averted by Air Force navigator Fred Shaw who spotted the small, single-engined monoplane in the path of the bombers.

The true nature of the flight to Paris would later emerge. Because Miller (who was a fluent German speaker) had been enlisted by Eisenhower to covertly attempt to convince some German officers to end the war early.