During the Second World War, there were many different people who defected over to different
sides.
But following the end of the war some of these in their homelands faced trials based on their
treason.
One man who switched sides from the Americans to the Nazis was Martin James Monti, and following
the end of the conflict he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for this.
But what is the story behind the American Pilot that defected to the Nazis to fight
communists?
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Martin James Monti was born on the 24th October 1921 in St Louis Missouri.
He was born to a large family and had many siblings.
His father was an investment banker, and was of Italian heritage and his mother was of
German-American descent too.
All of his brothers would later go on the serve in the United States Navy during the
Second World War, but even from a young age, Monti was a very anti communist young man.
He worshipped Charles Coughlin who was a Catholic priest who made anti-communist and anti-semitic
radio broadcasts.
In this, the priest would venerate the growing fascist movements across Europe in Germany
and Italy, and he would preach about the Nazis and Italians and their dictators Hitler and
Mussolini.
Each time he broadcasted millions of Americans would tune in to listen, but as the Second
World War broke out in 1939, the broadcasts were stopped and ended.
Before he became involved in the US military, Monti was working as an aircraft assembler
in a factory.
He even once travelled to Detroit to meet and speak with Coughlin after his show had
been taken off air, but in December 1942 Monti enlisted in the United States Army Air Force.
He became a cadet and over the next few years completed his flight training and became a
flight officer.
He qualified in the P-38 Lightning and also the P-39 Airacobra, and he was well respected
becoming a Second Leftenant.
On one mission in August 1944, he was sent to Karachi in modern day Pakistan, and whilst
here he was part of the 126th Replacement Depot.
Monti flew aboard a C-46 transport aircraft to Cairo, and after landing there he went
on to Italy via Libya.
He visited other fighter groups before continuing north past Naples.
He met up with the 354th Air Service Squadron who readied aircraft for their assignments
in squadrons.
Whilst here, Monti noticed that n unarmed photograph recon version of the P-38 was being
serviced and would require a test flight after it had been fixed and repaired.
He suggested his name to do this, but during this flight he stole the aircraft and then
flew onto Milan on the 13th October 1944.
After he had landed the aircraft, he immediately surrendered to the German soldiers that apprehended
him.
It was unsure what to do with him, and he was treated as a prisoner of war but he managed
to persuade his captors that he was actually wishing to defect over to the Nazis.
It’s considered that his meeting with Couglin could have inspired him to turn against the
Americans and to become a member of the Nazi military.
His plane was handed over and tested by the Luftwaffe, but then he was put to test within
the German war effort.
Monti was involved in propaganda and radio broadcasts and did a microphone test.
He was involved in a radio show called ‘The Round Table Conference,’ where he spoused
political propaganda that was broadcast on Nazi state radio.
He remained in Germany and went under a number of different names, to ensure that if he was
ever captured he could possibly have avoided being killed or executed.
Whilst continuing in Radio, he met Mildred Gillars who was known as ‘Axis Sally,’
and she was a female radio broadcaster.
She did not like him, and they came into conflict with Gillars preferring to resign than to
work with Monti.
She said when he came into a Berlin studio, ‘I just looked at him, turned around and
walked out without speaking.’
She then said ‘that man is a spy or traitor, either he must go or I will.’
Now whilst being inside of Nazi Germany, Monti became a member of the waffen SS and became
an Untersturmfurher.
He was involved in making a propaganda leaflet which was handed out to allied POWs, but as
the war turned agains the Germans he had to make a decision.
Monti could either stay in Berlin or attempt to escape and somehow evade capture.
He decided to flee, and he left Berlin to go to Milan by railroad and also by military
transports.
When he got to Milan, he confronted the first American unit he saw, and he tried to become
a Prisoner of War.
He was wearing his SS uniform at the time, and he had taken all the insignia off it,
and he was then interrogated by the Americans.
They did not know who they had, and instead just treated him as a German POW.
They did not realise he had stolen an American Aircraft, had defected to the NAzis and also
had been involved in Nazi Propaganda Broadcasts.
When he was confronted with information about the aircraft, he claimed that he had stolen
it as he was bored, and as he believed he could take the fight straight to the Germans,
but this was of course complete lies.
Following the war, Martin James Monti was placed on trial.
To defect during the conflict was very serious, and many were sentenced to death for their
actions in doing this, with it being considered treason.
For example in Britain, William Joyce Lord Haw Haw was later executed for his defection
and involvement in broadcasting anti-allied and pro-Nazi propaganda.
During his trial, Monti said he had stolen the plane to fight the Germans, and he said
that in a valiant act of defiance and war he had been shot down, and following this
had joined up with the Partisans who then handed him the SS uniform.
What seems like a rather far-fetched story today was widely believed at the time, he
was a convincing liar.
He had not been involved with the Partisans at all, and had instead been collaborating
with the Nazis in the final days of the conflict.
Because of this he was charged with stealing the aircraft and also desertion and was sentenced
to 15 years in prison.
This sentence was suspended and he was then allowed to re-enlist inside of the airforce
as a private and then within a year he managed to become a sergeant.
However, the truth about his activities during the Second World War then came to fruition,
as the FBI tracked him down and arrested him in New York.
Monti was charged with treason for his involvement in propaganda within Nazi Germany.
His alias Martin Wiethaupt had been busted, and Monti was identified as this figure.
He was indicted of treason, which was incredibly serious, and was charged with 21 separate
acts of treason committed between October 1944 and May 1945, when the war ended in Europe.
Surprisingly, Martin Jame Monti confessed and pleaded guilty, and he admitted all of
the charges that were put against him.
He asked for clemency and leniency, and claimed that he had been practically brainwashed and
indoctrinated to have been anti communist and anti soviet.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and was forced to pay a fine of $10,000.
Whilst in prison he went on hunger strike and was kept in solitary for a period of time.
He was a trouble maker and broke into the prison kitchen and stole food, and his sentence
was extended.
He was clearly delusional in his time in prison, as following being paroled he tried to get
his charge of treason overturned.
He said that the reason he went to Germany was he wanted to kill Hitler inside of Berlin
in an act he believed would end the war.
This was a ridiculous thing to have said, and this was denied.
But following his release from prison he lived out the rest of his days in Florida, before
he died in September 2000.
The story of Martin James Monti is one which an American Airman willingly defected over
to Nazi Germany.
He had clearly demonstrated before hand anti-communist and pro nazis beliefs and interests, and eventually
his activities caught up with him.
He could have been killed for his anti-Nazi propaganda broadcasts after the war, as this
was evidently treason.
He is remembered today as the The US Pilot who defected to the Nazis.
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