American Traitors – The Incredible Story of Martin James Monti
American citizens serving in Germany’s notorious SS, fact or fiction. Well, a little bit of both actually. During the war the Germans particularly the SS recruited vary widely and from all of the occupied territories they conquered.
They also recruited from amongst their enemies and it’s well known that the SS formed a renegade unit of British called the British Free Corps, from among allied prisoners of war that fell into German hands.
But this unit amounted to just 58 men. So what about the Americans? Tens of thousands were captured particularly during the Arden offensive of the winter of 1944-45 and many Americans have German ancestry did the SS succeed in luring some into what came to be called the George Washington Legion.
Firstly let’s clear something up there was never a unit called the George Washington Legion, it’s fiction. Perpetrated by excellent thriller writers like Jack Higgins. Not enough Americans volunteered to bother forming a dedicated unit but Americans most certainly served in a German uniform and some turned sides in the most spectacular fashion.
In the United States before the war, there was a fairly large Nazi party organization. A handful of Americans living in Europe when war broke out in 1939 joined the German armed forces.
Some had a German parent who classified them as “Fox Deutsche” or Ethnic Germans, others were ideological recruits. Most Americans either went home to enlist to serve in the U.S. Forces or were interned after Hitler declared war on America in December 1941.
Joining the German military after Germany’s declaration of war on the United States in early December 1941 was a treasonable offense.
One of the most spectacular examples of an American traitor was Saint Louis born pilot Martin James Monti.
Martin James Monti
Born in 1921, Monti’s father was a Swiss Italian who’d emigrated to the United States while his mother was of German ancestry. Like many men who later joined the SS Monti was virulently anti-communist.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in October 1942 and by early 1944 had qualified as a pilot, with the rank of second lieutenant. He was qualified on the P-39 Airacobra and the P-38 Lightning fighters. Sent to U.S. Forces in India, Monti now the first lieutenant was attached to the 126th Replacement Depot at Karachi in modern-day Pakistan.
He then did a very strange thing. He went absent without leave hitched a ride on a C-46 transport to Cairo in Egypt. And from there made his way via Tripoli to the Italian front. Appearing at the airfield at the 354th air service squadron near Naples. The 354th task was to prepare aircraft for assignment to frontline squadrons. Monti noticed an F-5E Lightning, which was a photo-reconnaissance version of the P-38, requiring a test flight following repairs.
He stole the F-5E and flew the aircraft north into German-occupied Italy and landed at Milan on the 13th of October 1944. Where he was taken, prisoner. His aircraft was captured perfectly intact and was given to Zirkus Rosarius; a special Luftwaffe unit that tested captured Allied aircraft.
As for Monti, he managed to convince his captors that he had defected to the Axis. Such renegades had their uses to the Germans and many were used to broadcast German propaganda over the radio to Allied Forces.
In 1944 Monti made a radio test in Berlin but he wasn’t very good. He worked briefly at the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (German State Radio) alongside Axis Sally.
Axis Sally
Another American traitor whose real name was Mildred Gillars. Instead of becoming a radio broadcaster, Monti joined the SS. Being inducted as an SS-Untersturmführer or second lieutenant into the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers; a special propaganda unit of war reporters in uniform, they provided correspondence to frontline units. This was dangerous work and many were killed in action. Others worked in the rear areas writing for the SS newspaper or broadcasting.
Monti served alongside another American. This man was a Louisiana-born SS-Hauptsturmführer or captain called Peter Delaney; who was believed to have previously served in the French Foreign Legion and may have been instrumental in getting Monti into the unit. In the SS Monti used his mother’s German maiden name Wiethaupt.
The unit also contained at least three Britons and one New Zealander. Some of whom later served in the British SS unit the British Free Corps.
Monti’s job in the SS was to write a leaflet for distribution to Allied POWs, urging them to join the fight against communism. He was serving with the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers in northern Italy. When Germany surrendered and went into U.S. captivity still dressed in his SS officers uniform on the 10th of May 1945.
Punishment followed. Court-martialed in 1946 for desertion and stealing an aircraft. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment but his service in the SS was overlooked.
His prison sentence was suspended and incredibly Monti was able to re-enlist in the army air forces in February 1947 as a Private. By the time of his honorable discharge in January 1948, Monti had been promoted to Sergeant.
His traitorous past finally caught up with him just minutes after his discharge from the armed forces when he was arrested by the FBI.
Charged with treasonous acts under the name Martin Wiethaupt. He was indicted on 21 acts of treason. On the 17th of January 1949, Monti pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 25 years and fined ten thousand dollars. Paroled from Leavenworth in 1960. Monti lived in obscurity until his death in 2000 age 78.
