The Americans of the Waffen SS: George Washington Legion

Today's episode will be a bit different then the usual that we cover for this series. The George Washington Legion is largely myth, but has some small elements of truth to it, mostly being that indeed, a few Americans would join up with Germany during WW2. This, is the American SS Members.

Read more about the Legions:

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SS Hitler's Foreign DivisionsForeign Volunteers in the Waffen SS 19401945

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The main way that the Germans would recruit men was via their existing POW camps, and their were plenty of Americans to choose from, especially after the battles of the Ardens Forest. However, even with a large pool to pull from, exceptionally few Americans would ever sign up to the so called George Washington Legion, and let's make something plain and clear, no such unit ever existed. It was instead the imaginations of historical fiction writers that bred the notion of such a unit. Yet, the question has to be posed then. Did Americans fight for Germany during WW2?

Before the start of the war, there was a fringe in the American population that had support for Germany. An American Nazi party had even been formed, which would hold parades and marches all around America, sometimes to the tune of tens of thousands. This organization, known as the German American Bund, focused on Americans with German ancestry, and talked about a combined American German nationalism with the end goal of supporting Nazi Germany. Training camps for fighters would be opened up across New England in the late 30's, as Membership swelled to 25,000. The Bund also published magazines, pamphlets and posters reflective in style and content of contemporary Third Reich propaganda. Their influence would grow, even as WW2 started in Europe, though they would gradually decline due to federal investigation, and the imprisonment of their Fuhur; Fritz Julius Kuhn. The group would continue to exist until December 1941, when the United States entered the war and immediately outlawed the Bund. Regardless, it is clear that sympathies of untold thousands of U.S. Residents lay with Germany at the outset of hostilities. Yet, did this influence over thousands result in any joining the Axis? A handful.

Most Americans living abroad would either return home at the outset of the war, or were interned when Hitler declared war against the United States. But, joining after this declaration, was an act of treason, and one such individual would have a well documented act, of treasonous defection. Fighter pilot turned SS officer Martin Monti. Born in St. Louis 1921, Monti's father was a Swiss Italian who had emigrated to the United States while his mother was of German ancestry. He was raised in an environment described as fervently religious, strongly anti-communist, and laced with isolationist sentiments. By the 30's, he would become an avid listener of clergyman Charles Coughlin, a Detroit based radio broadcaster who went on many tangents against communism, jews, president Roosevelt, all while supporting Hitlers Third Reich and Mussolini's fascist Italy, ultimately likely where the ideological pull of fascism would catch hold.

Nevertheless, Monti wouldn't originally list in the SS, instead, enlisting as an aviation cadet in the U.S. Air Forces in late November of 1942. He would become a qualified fighter pilot in the summer of '44, raising to the rank of second lieutenant. Being qualified with the P-38 Lightning and Bell Airacobra. Monti would be attached to the American forces based out of Karachi, India, being promoted to first lieutenant before the summer would come to a close. Yet, Monti himself would have plans, before the end of the year.