Martin James Monti: The Surrender of an American Nazi Defector
On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany, battered and broken, surrendered to the Allied forces, ending World War II in Europe. Two days later, while the world celebrated, another surrender took place—a bizarre and largely forgotten footnote to World War II. The man in question wasn’t a German officer or a member of the Nazi elite. He was an American, and his story remains one of the strangest acts of treason in U.S. history.
Meet Martin James Monti, the only American officer in World War II to defect.
Contents
A Misguided Youth in Isolationist America
Born on October 24, 1921, in St. Louis, Missouri, Monti grew up in a world where isolationism thrived. His father, Martin Monti Jr., a Swiss-Italian, and his German-American mother, Marie Antoinette Wiethaupt, raised him as a devout Catholic. It was in this environment that young Martin was exposed to one of the more sinister voices of the era: Father Charles Coughlin.
Coughlin’s radio show, the Golden Hour of the Shrine of the Little Flower, reached millions of listeners weekly, delivering antisemitic diatribes and a glowing endorsement of Nazi Germany. Monti, one of those impressionable listeners, soaked it all in. His father even reinforced these ideas, taking young Martin to meetings of the America First Committee, an isolationist group opposed to U.S. involvement in the war. By the time the U.S. entered World War II, Monti was convinced his country was fighting on the wrong side.
From Pilot to Defector: Monti’s Journey to Infamy
In December 1942, Monti joined the U.S. Army Air Corps as a trainee pilot. By then, his allegiance to his country was already shaky. In October of that year, he’d made a pilgrimage to Detroit to meet Father Coughlin in person. What the two discussed remains a mystery, but it seems to have solidified Monti’s resolve to carve out a unique—and treasonous—path.
After completing pilot training in 1944, 2nd Lt. Monti was sent to Karachi (now in Pakistan). His tenure there was short-lived. Without orders, Monti hitched a ride to Europe, hopping from Iran to Italy. Once there, he talked his way onto an airfield and “borrowed” a brand-new Lockheed F-5E reconnaissance plane, claiming he was a pilot in need of a test flight. On October 13, 1944, Monti took off—flying straight to Milan, where he surrendered himself to the occupying Germans.
An American in Nazi Uniform
Monti’s defection baffled his German captors. Claiming he wanted to fight the Soviet Union rather than the Allies, Monti volunteered for service. Initially, the Nazis didn’t trust him, holding him in a POW camp. But Monti’s persistence paid off, and he was eventually released to work with the Waffen-SS. By then, however, the Luftwaffe was in no condition to field new pilots, even ones who came gift-wrapped with stolen American aircraft.
Instead, Monti’s new role was…radio broadcaster. Under the pseudonym “Martin Wiethaupt” (his mother’s maiden name), Monti worked for the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers, a propaganda unit. His broadcasts, though, were lackluster, hampered by his refusal to say anything explicitly against the U.S. and his overall incompetence. Even fellow propagandists distrusted him. Edward Vieth Sittler, another American-born Nazi collaborator, doubted his reliability, while “Axis Sally” Mildred Gillars refused to work with him, calling him a traitor.
By April 1945, with the Nazi regime collapsing, Monti was ordered back to Italy. It was there, amidst the ruins of Germany’s war machine, that Monti decided it was time to switch sides again.
The Great Cover-Up: Monti’s Return to the U.S.
When American forces captured Monti in May 1945, he spun an elaborate tale. He claimed Italian partisans had given him a Waffen-SS uniform to escape advancing Soviet forces. For a time, his story held up. But Monti couldn’t cover all his tracks, especially not the stolen F-5E.
In court-martial proceedings, Monti admitted to stealing the aircraft and was convicted of desertion and theft. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $10,000. However, his father’s lobbying efforts—and a letter Monti had sent home claiming to be a POW—convinced President Truman to commute his sentence. Monti was released in 1946 on the condition that he re-enlist as an Air Force private.
Drew Pearson Blows the Whistle
Monti might have gotten away with his wartime treachery if not for journalist Drew Pearson. In a 1947 column, Pearson exposed Monti’s Nazi collaboration and questioned why he was still serving in the Air Force.
Below is the article from the Washington Post, November 1, 1947:
High Army Officials Study Treason Charge
by Drew Pearson
The most bizarre charge of American treason in the history of the war is gradually unfolding before investigators of the War and Justice Departments. Douglas Chandler who broadcast against his country from Germany, has been given a life sentence. (He died in jail). Ezra Pound, the bearded poet who broadcast from Italy, has been locked in the St. Elizabeths booby hatch. Axis Sally is still in the custody of the United States Army in Germany.
But meanwhile Lt. Martin James Monti of St. Louis, who did a sort of Rudolf Hess in reverse, landing behind enemy lines in Italy and becoming a member of the elite Nazi SS Corps, is still in the United States Army. His case, for some strange reason, has been bottled up in the War and Justice Departments for months. But now, two years after the war, it is finally being reviewed by highest officials.
Army records show that Lieut. Monti, an Air Corps flier, deserted the United States Air Corps 126th Replacement Battalion, Karachi, India, on October 2, 1944, hitchhiking by plane to Italy. He then stole a P-38 (a new F-5E yet unknown to the Germans) fighter plane, October 13, 1944, at Pomigliano and came down behind enemy lines. When later court martialed, Monti claimed that he was shot down. However, investigation after the court-martial showed that he landed voluntarily, and when captured by the Germans told them that he was fighting on the wrong side of the war and wanted to join them.
The Germans naturally were suspicious. They figured Monti was a spy. However he became so earnest in his protestations that he wanted to fight on the Nazi side that eventually he was taken into their councils. Monti became part of several radio conference broadcasts and at one time conducted a tour of newspapermen through the territory that the Nazis had just recaptured from the Russians. …Most amazing development however was that eventually Monti enlisted in the elite Nazi SS Corps, made up of Hitler’s most fanatical fighting men.
When finally apprehended by the United States Army, Monti was on a train with other German troops in the Uniform of the SS Corps. He claimed that he had stolen the uniform and was using it with the help of the Italian underground to escape from Italy. He also claimed that he had been engaged in getting intelligence for the United States Army.
However, subsequent investigation showed that Monti had not used the SS uniform as a means of escape, but had formally taken the oath as an SS Officer early in 1945.
Monti was court martialed by the United States Army on a charge of being AWOL ans stealing an airplane. For the latter he was given 15 years. No charge of treason was brought against him. The Army at the time was not able to make a thorough probe of Monti’s operations behind enemy lines.
However, the most interesting phase of the Monti treason case is that his 15-year sentence later was reduced by the Army to nothing, provided he would reenlist in the Army as a private. This he did on February 11, 1946. Who persuaded the Army to make this drastic reduction is not known. However, it is important, for this agreement may prevent the Army from trying Monti a second time.
Later, when Justice Department lawyers began probing other treason cases in Germany, the activities of Lieutenant Monti turned up. After months of mysterious pigeon holing, the Justice Department is now examining the case. If the Army decides it cannot try Monti again, Justice Department officials say they expect to move in.
Treason
The revelations were too damning to ignore. On January 26, 1948, Monti was discharged from the military, having risen to the rank of sergeant. Minutes after his discharge he was arrested by the FBI.
Charged with treason, Monti faced a new trial. His defense painted him as a misguided youth blinded by anti-Communist zeal. Prosecutors, however, argued that Monti’s actions were deliberate, calculated, and treasonous.
On January 17, 1949, Monti surprised everyone and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined another $10,000. (Read the court transcript here.)
Monti served his time in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, but his prison stay was as colorful as his wartime escapades. Not long after beginning his sentence, Monti decided to stage a protest in the form of a hunger strike. This bold move landed him in solitary confinement, proving that even behind bars, Monti was a magnet for trouble.
His rebellious streak didn’t stop there. At one point, he broke into the prison kitchen and helped himself to some food, an act that earned him an additional 12 months on his sentence. It also didn’t help any claim that he would go on another hunger strike. Clearly, Monti’s knack for bad decisions wasn’t confined to treason most foul.
Learn about the boys who were charged with treason for throwing a strawberry tart at a king
In 1951, he tried to reverse his guilty plea, insisting he had acted without “treasonable intent” when he flew into enemy territory. According to Monti, his attorneys had pressured him into pleading guilty to avoid the death penalty. During his appeal, he was asked point-blank in court, “Well, did you say that Germany was on the right side and the U.S. was on the wrong side?” Monti’s less-than-reassuring response was, “Possibly.”
Unsurprisingly, the court rejected his appeal. Monti remained behind bars until 1960, when he was released on parole, marking the end of his incarceration but not the end of his efforts to clear his name.
A Life of Obscurity
After serving 11 years in prison, Monti was released on parole in 1960. He lived quietly, avoiding public attention, until his death in 2000. Monti made one last attempt to clear his name in 1963, claiming his defection had been part of a plan to assassinate Hitler. The courts rejected this claim, leaving his legacy as America’s only officer to voluntarily join the Nazi cause.
The Enigma of Martin James Monti
Monti’s story is a perplexing chapter in World War II history. Was he a deluded idealist, blinded by propaganda? A selfish opportunist looking for adventure? Or just an oddball whose strange decisions spiraled out of control? Perhaps he was all three. What’s certain is that his betrayal remains one of the strangest, and most unsettling, tales of treason in American history.
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