"I hope the day will soon come when German soldiers will be able to return to their homes and families to be happy and listen to whatever they may please, especially to the Voice of America, the voice of freedom and liberty."
Glenn Miller, America's popular band leader, made that appeal during one of six special broadcasts recorded in London in the fall of 1944, as Allied forces were pushing the Nazis back to the borders of the Reich.The broadcasts, "Music for the Wehrmacht," were part of an Allied propaganda effort to persuade German soldiers to give up the fight. Miller, then a major in the Air Force, conducted the 52-piece American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Force in pop, jazz and dance numbers - music that was banned in Nazi Germany in those dark days toward the end of World War II.
For years, tapes of the broadcasts were believed lost. But they were rediscovered recently and have been reissued in a two-CD collection from RCA Victor under the title "Glenn Miller - The Lost Recordings."
The collection is a nostalgia trip for anyone over 50. Among the 45 tracks are upbeat instrumentals of songs like "In the Mood," "American Patrol," "Tuxedo Junction" and "String of Pearls." Plus, gentler orchestral arrangements of "Stardust," "Body and Soul," "Moonlight Serenade" and much more.
Vocals are provided by the late Johnny Desmond, who was known as the GI Sinatra, and by Irene Manning, who starred in the 1944 film "Hollywood Canteen."
Miller is heard chatting on several tracks with a German-speaking co-host, Ilse Weinberger. He plugs America as "the great melting pot and a symbol of unity in the fight for freedom and peace."
The late Alan Dell, a former BBC presenter and vice president of the Glenn Miller Society, found the prized tapes, which were made some 20 years ago from the original metal discs, in various private collections in London. The discs are still missing.
Dell took the tapes to Conifer Records in London, where engineer Ted Kendall remastered them, doing a splendid job considering the vintage of the originals. They were released in London last year and on Aug. 13 of this year in the United States.
Miller's son, Steve Miller, talking by telephone from his home in Las Vegas, said the tapes had circulated in private collections but were never released commercially before.
"You have to remember that this stuff was recorded in wartime," Miller said. "No one thought of releasing it commercially. Glenn Miller was in England not only to do radio broadcasts beamed into Europe but also to entertain, to go to different bases. He and the band did an unbelievable amount of stuff.
"Who could foresee the future - that he was going to be lost over the English channel?"
Glenn Miller disappeared on a flight over the channel in a small plane on Dec. 15, 1944, just weeks after recording his last propaganda show. He was on his way to Paris to make advance arrangements for the band's planned European tour. Neither he, the pilot nor the plane were heard from again.
Miller, described as extremely patriotic by those who knew him, had disbanded his successful civilian band in 1942 to join the Army Air Force as a captain. He was later promoted to major.
Miller formed a top-notch Army Air Force Band, recruiting many musicians from his civilian orchestras, and took it to England in the summer of 1944. This became the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Force, which some have called Miller's greatest ensemble.
On liner notes for the new CDs, author and Miller expert Geoffrey Butcher describes the band's style as a blend of "Goodman/Miller dance music, Basie rhythm and the Kostelanetz/Rose string orchestra."
The band entertained troops over the BBC and at almost nonstop concerts at American airfields. It had such emotional appealthat after one concert in July 1944, Air Force Gen. Jimmy Doolittle took the stage and told Miller: "Next to a letter from home, your organization is the greatest morale builder in the ETO (European Theater of Operations)."
In October 1944, as the Allies were stepping up their propaganda offensive, Miller was asked to broadcast with his full band over a London broadcasting station operated by the Office of War Information (OWI).
Miller readily agreed. On Oct. 30, the Miller band recorded its first show in Studio One of the Abbey Road studios in London. This room, large enough to accommodate a symphony orchestra, was later immortalized by The Beatles in their Abbey Road album.
Miller and the band recorded five more half-hour programs in November. These were broadcast on Wednesdays, starting Nov. 8, 1944.
Butcher said postwar research showed most of the broadcasts got through, despite German jamming.
"Perhaps," he added, "the Miller Band was really another Allied secret weapon."