Martin James Monti (October 24, 1921 – September 11, 2000) was a United States Army Air Forces pilot who defected to Nazi Germany in October 1944, joined the Waffen-SS, and worked as a propagandist and writer. After the end of World War II, he was tried and sentenced for theft and desertion. Monti was granted clemency six months later. However, in 1948, after his involvement in Nazi propaganda was discovered, he was arrested, tried for treason, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Early life
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Monti was one of seven children of prosperous parents. His father, Martin Monti Jr., was an investment broker who had also been born in St. Louis. Martin Monti Jr.'s father had immigrated to the United States from the Italian Graubünden, part of the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland, while his mother was a native of Italy. Martin James Monti's mother, Marie Antoinette Wiethaupt, was born in Missouri to German-American parents. Monti's four brothers all served honorably in the United States Navy during World War II.
In the 1930s, Monti was a staunch anti-communist and an enthusiastic admirer of Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest who made weekly radio broadcasts. Coughlin was known for his sentiments towards anti-capitalism, anti-communism, antisemitism, and admiration of the fascist governments of Germany and Italy; his broadcasts attracted millions of listeners before eventually being stopped in 1939 on the outbreak of World War II. Prior to enlisting in the U.S. Army, Monti worked as an aircraft assembler.
World War II
In October 1942, Monti traveled to Detroit, Michigan to meet and converse with Coughlin. On December 19, 1942, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet. In 1943 and early 1944, he completed flight training and was commissioned as a flight officer. He qualified on the P-39 Airacobra and the P-38 Lightning, and was promoted to Second Lieutenant.
In August 1944, he was sent to Karachi, in what is now Pakistan. While attached to the 126th Replacement Depot, Monti hitched a ride aboard a C-46 transport aircraft to Cairo, Egypt and, from there, traveled on to Italy, via Tripoli, Libya. At Foggia, he visited the 82nd Fighter Group, before continuing on to Pomigliano Airfield north of Naples, where the 354th Air Service Squadron prepared aircraft for assignment to line squadrons. While there, he observed that an F-5E Lightning aircraft, an unarmed photographic reconnaissance version of the P-38, was being serviced and would require a test flight after repairs. Monti instead stole the aircraft and flew to Milan on 13 October 1944. According to Monti's testimony, his reason for defecting with the aircraft was "I had been sitting there in India in this replacement battalion for six weeks or more and had grown tired of the inactivity and desired to join the outfit my buddies were in and had been associated with for the past year or more, there was my desire for combat and to be with them". Upon landing, he surrendered the plane to the German forces. Initially treated as an ordinary prisoner of war, he was able to convince his captors, including interrogator Hanns Scharff that he had defected out of genuine conviction. In November, 1944, he was interviewed by American-born Nazi propagandist Edward Vieth Sittler. Sittler deemed him suspect, and Monti was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. His aircraft was handed over to the Zirkus Rosarius, the Luftwaffe unit that tested Allied aircraft that were captured in flying condition.