A little known event to historians here in the UK provides an interesting modelling project for those who like building WWII aircraft! Martin James Monti (October 24, 1921 – September 11, 2000) was a United States Army Air Force pilot who defected to the Axis powers in October 1944 and worked as a propaganda broadcaster and writer. After the end of World War II, he was tried and sentenced to a long prison term for desertion, then pardoned, then tried for treason and sentenced to another long term.
Born in St. Louis, Monti was one of seven children of prosperous parents. His father was an investment broker who had immigrated to the United States from the Italian Graubünden, the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. His mother was from Germany. Four of his brothers served in the Navy during World War II. During the 1930s, Monti was an anti-Communist and an enthusiastic admirer of Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest who made weekly radio broadcasts. Coughlin was known for his anti-Communism, his anti-Semitism and his admiration of the Fascist governments of Germany and Italy. His broadcasts attracted audiences of millions before being stopped in 1939 on the outbreak of World War II.
In October 1942, Monti travelled to Detroit to meet Father Coughlin. In November, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet. During 1943 and early 1944, he completed flying training and was commissioned. He qualified in the P-39 Airacobra and the P-38 Lightning, and was promoted to second lieutenant and in August 1944, he was sent to Karachi, India (now in Pakistan).
While attached to the 126th Replacement Depot as a first lieutenant, he hitched a ride aboard a C-46 tranport aircraft to Cairo, Egypt, and from there he travelled to Italy, via Tripoli, Libya. At Foggia, he visited the 82nd Fighter Group, and then made his way to Pomigliano Airfield, north of Naples, where the 354th Air Service Squadron prepared aircraft for assignment to line squadrons.
He noticed that an aircraft, a reconnaissance version of the P-38, needed work and required a test flight after repairs. Volunteering for this, he stole the aircraft and flew to Milan where, he landed and surrendered the plane to German forces. Monti was initially treated as a normal prisoner of war by the Germans until he was able to convince them he had defected out of genuine conviction. His aircraft was handed over to Zirkus Rosarius, (JG-51) the Luftwaffe unit that tested Allied aircraft that were captured in flying condition. Originally it was kept in its USAAC markings (Coded MK) but later sported the standard German camouflage but with yellow tail, upper wingtips and underside.
At the end of 1944, Monti made a microphone test at the recording studio of SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers, a propaganda unit of the Waffen-SS, under the direction of Guenter d’Alquen, in Berlin, Germany. In early 1945, he was briefly employed by Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, the German state radio organization. There, he came into contact with Mildred Gillars, the American broadcaster widely known as “Axis Sally”. Gillars took an immediate dislike to Monti and threatened to resign rather than work with him. However, Monti’s lack of ability as a radio commentator meant he made only a handful of broadcasts.
Monti later joined the SS as a SS-Untersturmführer and participated in writing and composing a leaflet to be distributed by members of the German military forces, and among Allied prisoners of war. At the end of the war, he was ordered to Italy, where he surrendered to US forces on May 10, 1945, still wearing his SS uniform. In 1946, Monti was court-martialed for stealing the plane and for desertion; he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His sentence was later suspended and he was allowed to re-enlist in the Army as a private on February 11, 1947. He was a sergeant when he was discharged on January 26, 1948.
Interestingly the aircraft was still flying at the end of the war and was found on one occasion to have provided a test-bed airframe for German engines. It was returned dismantled to the US in 1946.
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