This is from Day By Day on the BING magazine site.

1944
September 4, Monday. Bing records three 15-minute programmes with Jack Russin for broadcast to Germany from ABSIE (American Broadcasting Station in Europe) in London. He speaks phonetic German The clock shows 5:50 (presumably p.m.) in the photo of the event. The programmes are broadcast on September 6th. at 1:30 - 1:45pm., September 13th., and September 20th. Bob Musel gives Bing a new nickname.

... Oliver Nichols with ABSIE came to SHAEF to see if Crosby would broadcast to the Germans in their own language. Bing had a tight schedule in personal appearances and broadcasts before the troops on the continent and he didn’t speak German. To learn it parrot fashion would take too much time. So Nichols came up with the idea of spelling it out phonetically from which Bing could read. In just about fifteen minutes Bing had mastered it and this is how he came to be known as “Der Bingle.”

Talk spelled out phonetically (accent is indicated in CAPS):

Hahl-LOH, DOIT-Sheh Zohl-DAH-ten!
Heer Shpreekht Bing CROS-by.
Eekh KOHM-meh zoh-AYBEHN. . . . Ouse Ah-MEH-ree-kah,
dehm LAHN-deh . . . voh NEE-mahnd Zeekh . . . fohr dehr Geh-SHTAH-poh FUERKH-tehn mooss–voh YEH-dehr-MAHNN
dee FRY-HIGHT haht . . . Tzoo ZAH-gen oond tzoo SHRY-ben vahs ehr vill.
Eekh KORM-meh Ouse dehm LAHN-deh LIN-kohln’s, voh ehss KY-neh HEHR-ren . . . Oond KY-neh KNEH-khteh gibt.
Eekh HOHF-feh, dahss OON-zeh-rah REH-khteh . . . oond OON-zeh-reh FRY-HIGH-ten Oukh bahld VEE-dehr . . . in OI-rehm LAHN-deh EYN-TZOOK HAHL-ten VEHR-den;
dah-FUER KEMP-fen veer Ah-meh-ree-KAH-nehrr–
AH-behr Eekh been neekht heer oom tzoo oikh tzoo
PREH-dee-gen, ZOHN-dehrn fuer Oikh eyn PAH-ahr LEE-dehr tzoo ZEEN-gen.

Translation:
Hello, German soldiers! This is Bing Crosby speaking to you. I just came from America, the country where nobody needs to be afraid of a Gestapo–where every man enjoys the same liberty to say and write whatever he wishes. I come from the land of Lincoln where there is no master, no slave. I honesty hope that our liberties and rights shall soon return again to your own country; for this, we Americans are fighting for–but I am not here to preach to you, I am here to sing a few songs.
(Star-Spangled Radio, pages 233/234)

The Allies opened up on the Nazis with a new secret weapon from London, this week, according to Bob Musel, “United Press” and “Variety” correspondent in London whose story on the weapon broke, Monday. The new counter attack to the V2 was Der Bingle, sometimes known in the States as Bing Crosby and now, overseas, for morale work. He talked and sang in a recorded broadcast by an American broadcasting station in Europe, beamed to Germany. Der Bingle, who, according to Musel, is a great favorite with the Germans, took off first in a snappy chat to the Wehrmacht, astonishing front line observers by using reasonably good German. Der Bingle who doesn’t speak German was asked to explain how come. “I do it with phonetics,” he said. Consulting his phonetic chart, according to Musel, Crosby started off with, “Hello, German soldiers, here speaks Bing Crosby, I’ve just arrived from America, the country where nobody is afraid of the Gestapo and where everybody has a right to say and write what he thinks.” Rippling through the Teutonic guttural, the Bingo told the Germans about constitutional rights and what Americans fight for, then he signaled his pianist and said, “I didn’t come here to preach, I came to sing a few songs.” It was beautiful psychological warfare, wrote Musel. A passing typist, asking what was going on in the studios, was told it was Crosby singing to the Nazis, had a different comment. “To the Nazis,” she exclaimed, incredulously, “what kind of punishment is that?”
(Variety, September 6, 1944)
 

Malcolm, the snippet of info in the Miller CD liner notes suggests that Bing only did some German intros for his English language records ABSIE played on their programs, but your info very interestingly says he did some singing in German, too. That is a fascinating difference.

I am suspecting that clip is going to show that Bing did a reasonably good job with the phonetic German.  As those of you who know that Miller CD may recall, Miller was a bit wooden in his English intros, and although the liner notes say he also did phonetic German in those sessions there's hardly any of it on the CDs. which mainly have his co-host speaking German.  Bing, however, as we know, was quite a vocal artist, both in speaking and singing, and he had some foreign language ability, more than the average American.

Richard, I agree, those recordings on the Miller recordings for ABSIE are amazing, especially for their time.  I also think the band was hotter than Miller's original band and the range of songs had more breadth than any record of Miller hits I ever heard before.  Perhaps this was because they were represting the Allies and not just one bandleader's artistic entertainment vision. They clearly sound like musicians on a mission, and they aren't holding back.

Have now put the short extract on YouTube. See http://youtu.be/uMgv6KdByUk

In the light of the quality of the recordings of those Glenn Miller broadcasts from 1944, it is most depressing that the only recordings of Bing with the Glenn Miller band, from around the same time, and also made in London, are extraordinarily poor. Though to be fair it is fortunate that they survived - the sole surviving transcription disc was rescued it is alleged from a heap of trash, or something similar. Very crackly and noisy, but at least it survives - on a 12 inch LP issued in 1983 - Broadway Intermission BR 114 "Bing Crosby with Glenn Miller", in case anyone is interested, though it could be hard to find.

zanereed wrote:

Richard,

Were any of these tracks (Bing and Glenn) ever available on CD?

Zane, not to my knowledge. 

But you can download and listen to the whole programme here. The second link is to part of the LP sleeve which gives information on the broadcast and the personnel. I have blanked out details of side 2 of the LP which covers tracks from KMH and other sources. 

As I have said the audio quality is very poor. 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3vneCRh1nRHUWplVVdKbDJtTHM/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3vneCRh1nRHNlhaMDVBNXlRSDA/edit?usp=sharing


 

Yes, Bing did send a message to Australians concerning 'If I had my way', in 1939. Norman Banks of Melbourne's radio station 3KZ had sent Bing a recorded message of appreciation from six listeners. Bing replied by letter and also sent a 12-inch single-sided Decca recording with a greeting which began with 'Hullo friends in Australia...if I had my way I would hop on aboat and come to see you all...'. It conclued with Bing singing 'If I had my way'.