大象传媒

Dec 15th. 1944- I was a member of a crew of 7 flying a Lancaster Bomber based at RAF Mepal Cambridgshire - we were briefed to bomb the German Town of Siegen - together we had completed a large number of bombing operations having also operated on Stirling Bombers with 218 Gold Coast Sqdn based at Woolfox Lodge in Lincolnshire - we had become just like 7 brothers - all totally compatible-dedicated and efficient (this is why we survived) !
Our operation co-incided with the last fateful flight of Glen Miller departing from his Bedfordshire base Twinwood in a very small two-seater aircraft a Norseman.flying to Paris to give a concert to US servicemen.
we left our base in poor weather conditions and throughout the flight these conditions deteriorated rapidly and as we entered German air-space we were recalled and detailed to jettison our bombs into a pre-designated area of the North Sea - over 100 aircraft were involved - a very dicey action in 9/10's cloud when we could hardly see our own wing-tips ! Over the years there have been numerous reports from the media in general and several observers who have claimed to have seen our bombs hit the renowned Band leader's aircraft
In view of the fact that we were jettisoning from an altitude of 3,000 ft. with almost nil visibility , in my opinion a most ridiculous claim from any observer
This was the only occasion we did not release our bombs over the target.
I have been spending the last 15 Winter months in Florida and have acquired many good ex Veteran US - Air Force friends - last year joining a long line of US customers at a post office to purchase Christmas stamps - a colleague at the head of the queue recognised me me shouting "Hi Ron" and then to the rest of the assembly "Hey folks this is the English guy who killed Glen Miller" !
I feel this stigma will never leave me.
Ron Brown

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