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Operation Glenn Miller
Written by Leo Kessler (AKA Charles Whiting)
Published: 2001 by Severn House Publishers (UK and US)
Pages:212 

Glenn Miller, for those of you not familiar with the name, was a popular bandleader in the late 30s/early 40’s. At the height of his career, Miller disbanded his hugely popular orchestra and enlisted in the Army, creating a band there that was hugely popular with the servicemen and women and with the general public. In June of ‘44, Miller and his AAF band were transferred to England. In December, Glenn got on board a plane bound for Paris and was never seen again

For those of you who are familiar with my writing, you know I wrote a Hogan’s Heroes story with “guest character” Major Glenn Miller. I had never written anything in my fiction with real people before and don’t intend to make a habit of it after this. LOL. However, while looking through Amazon.com one day for Glenn Miller CD’s and whatnot I came upon this book. Operation Glenn Miller.

Of course, I could find no synopsis for it and had no idea what the plot was, but it was fiction and it obviously had something to do with Miller and by golly I was gonna get my hands on this thing to see what it entailed. Getting a hold of the book however, proved a test of patience. I attempted to order it through Amazon.com but after 6 months of “We’re unable to locate this product, do you still want the order to remain?” Amazon finally gave up. My order was suspended and my $ credited back to me.

I kinda gave up on the book after that. Then one day a couple of months ago, I decided to try again, only this time I checked out the “Used” section of Amazon.com and found a copy available. I placed my order and a few days later I had the book in hand.

A brief skim of the book indicated that Miller was in the story itself as a character. This had been the Big Question in regards to my wanting to get the book to begin with. Is Miller in it? What the heck kinda plot are we talkin’ here? How is he portrayed?

Friends….sit down for my Critical Review of “Operation Glenn Miller.”

In my few short years of Studying All That Is Miller, I think I’ve come across just about every half-baked conspiracy theory there is out there as to what really happened to him. Various “fictional crap” (as Miller’s biographer George Simon put it) have speculated that he ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed by black marketers, he dropped dead upon arrival in Paris, he dropped dead at a whore house in Paris, he took off to save Marlene Dietrich when the Battle of the Bulge began (hell, what red blooded American male wouldn’t have done that?), ect., ect…

One conspiracy theory even claims that Miller was shot to death in Ohio in May of 1945. Although this theory fails to account for where the heck he was between December ‘44 and May ‘45, the theory has a mysterious Doctor X, who on a radio show in 1993, claimed to have been the doctor in attendance when the wounded Miller was brought in. Now, really, what good is a conspiracy theory without a mysterious Doctor X?! By the way, you can purchase a copy of this “famed” radio broadcast on the internet for the low sum of $80.

Anyway, I digress. I’ve read it all folks. And I was glad to know that at least my story, which will incorporate Miller’s disappearance as part of the plot in the third segment but is in no way a conspiracy theory, can serve as something good for the legacy of Mr. Miller, instead of being something akin to tabloid journalism. Really bad tabloid journalism.

Operation Glenn Miller is a conspiracy theory disguised as historical fiction. Leo Kessler has two author notes, one at the beginning of the book explaining that this was “an attempt to tell the truth” and another at the end, like a final footnote explaining that certain locales still exist and their apparent condition, even after 60 someodd years, still lays credence to the “theory.” Mr. Kessler seems to be a very well informed individual on the second world war (he oughta be, he fought in it, according to his bio) and also apparently is very well informed on Glenn Miller. Unfortunately, some of the more finer details of Miller as a person are lost or forgotten about in this book and Miller is portrayed like a fish out of water. Okay, so he’s suddenly thrown into some screwed up G2 assignment on the request of Eisenhower which is totally out of his realm, but he comes across in the book as a little weak, a bit dim and thoroughly confused. His dialogue is awkward and not once, NOT ONCE, does he light up a cigarette. (Perhaps this is why he seems “off” in this story.)

Maybe I’m biased because I happen to like the guy and I admit that. But as the reader, I felt sorry for him and embarrassed for the situations he would find himself in. The entire book seems to be a “Let’s See What Weird Scenarios We Can Throw Glenn Miller Into and See What He Does!” type thing. From a near brawl in a pub (with a drunk Ernest Hemmingway, no less), to a meeting with OSS agents at a Paris whore house, to being taken to a “death depot,” Glenn is dragged through the most awful places in Europe during WWII and surrounded by the most whacked out characters this side of Alice in Wonderland. And the OSS characters (OSS was a pre-cursor to the CIA) find his involvement in this covert assignment a colassal joke.

The entire book is a like a car accident. Somewhat crudely written, the descriptions vivid but bordering on crass and the characters kooky, all the same you can’t help but read it. More or less because you’re wondering what’s going to happen to poor Glenn by the end of it. Given the history, you know he’s not going to survive (and the foreshadowing is so obvious in this book that it’s comical) but you keep reading wondering if his end will be described as crassly or crudely as the scenes of death in the rest of the book.

Now, I realize this is a WWII story. People die in wars. Unpleasantly. But look, make me feel bad the person got killed. Or make me horrified. Don’t make me laugh!

Eventually I did find a synopsis online for Operation Glenn Miller which said, basically, that the Germans take advantage of Miller’s disappearance to send in a double to try to assassinate Ike. Um…no. This book was certainly not of that synopsis, but I’m wondering if there’s another book out there. A Miller look-like pulling a pistol on Ike. Yeah….I just can’t wait for that to be published.

I’d attempt to synopsi this book, but I was just as confused reading the thing as Miller was as a character in it. But I think it went something like this…

The Allies have been broadcasting propaganda from Luxemborg (Radio Luxemborg). The Germans want the radio station destroyed and have a ragtag SS unit in route (The Wotan). The Allies, meantime, want to make an offer to the German’s for a chance at negotiating a separate peace. I think. I dunno, they end up with the remains of some German folk hero who the Allies are willing to give back as a token of good faith. In addition to the return of the body, a special broadcast is to be made featuring none other than Major Glenn Miller.

Of course, could he make this broadcast from London? Hell no, they gotta have him go to freakin’ Luxemborg to do this! Before that tho’ he gets dragged along by two OSS men to a “death depot” (my term) in Belgium to pick up this body. Basically it’s a staging area for the return of the dead from the front, where they’re processed, identified and then shipped back to wherever. Miller gets sick no less than three times during this scene. What connection the body and the broadcast have…who knows. Miller can’t figure it out (even though he asks, but the answer is a beat-around-the-bush covert OSS type answer) and as the reader, even though we know things Miller doesn’t….we really don’t know anymore than he does! The final scene at the radio station, as Miller’s about to go on the air, there’s the sound of gunfire outside. There’s an explosion as the front door is blown open. Miller looks up and….

End of story.

No kidding. I’m thinking maybe the muse finally abandoned the author by that point. “Look,” Miller could have said during an author/character conference, “you’ve already put me through the damndest #$%&*! in this thing, you’re NOT describing my death. Story is OVER!”

And not a moment too soon.