[Mil History] THE NAME Martin James Monti may not carry the same measure of infamy in the United States as Benedict Arnold, the notorious turncoat of the War of Independence. Yet the obscure St. Louis, Missouri native does hold the dubious distinction as being the only known American serviceman to have willingly defected to the Nazis in World War Two.In October of 1944, the 23-year-old U.S. Army second lieutenant stole an unarmed reconnaissance plane from an Allied airbase in southern Italy and flew it into enemy territory as part of a bizarre bid to change sides.
The child of German and Italian immigrants and raised in a staunchly anti-communist household, Monti became a firebrand critic of the western Allies’ support for the Soviet Union. In fact, despite enlisting in the Army Air Corps in November, 1942, the young flying officer saw Nazi Germany as the best hope for stopping what he saw as the real threat to world peace: Bolshevism.
Over the next year and a half, Monti hatched a brazen scheme to join the fight against the Red Menace by casting his lot in with the fascists.