American SS Renegades - The George Washington Legion

American citizens who served in Germany's notorious SS, fact or fiction, well, a little of both, in reality, during the war, the Germans, particularly the SS, recruited a lot and from all the occupied territories they conquered, they also recruited among their enemies and it is well known that the SS formed a renegade British unit called the British Free Corps among the Allied prisoners of war who fell into German hands, but this unit had only 58 men. So what about the Americans? Tens of thousands were captured, especially during the Arden Offensive of the winter of 1944-45, and many Americans are of German ancestry; the SS managed to lure some into what was called George Washington's Legion.

First, let's get something straight: there was never a unit called George Washington's Legion. It's a fiction perpetrated by excellent thriller writers like Jack Higgins. There weren't enough Americans who volunteered to bother forming a dedicated unit, but Americans certainly served in German uniform and some switched sides in the most spectacular way in the states. united before the war there was a fairly large nazi party organization and a handful of

american

s were living in europe when the war broke out in 1939 they joined the german armed forces some had a german father who classified them as fox deutsche or ethnic germans others were Ideological recruits Most Americans returned home to enlist to serve in American forces or were interned after Hitler declared war on America in December 1941.

Join the German Army after Germany's declaration of war on the states united in early December 1941 was a crime of treason one of the most spectacular examples of an American traitor was the Saint Louis born pilot Martin James Monty born in 1921 Monty's father was a Swiss Italian who had emigrated to the United States While his mother was of German descent like many men who later joined the SS, Monty was virulently anti-communist. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps in October 1942 and by early 1944 had qualified as a pilot with the rank of second lieutenant, he was qualified on the p-39 era cobra and the p-38 lightning fighters sent to us forces in india.

Monty now First Lieutenant was attached to Replacement Depot 126 in Karachi, in present-day Pakistan. Then he did something very strange: he went AWOL, boarded a C-46 transport to Cairo, Egypt, and from there traveled to Tripoli to the Italian front, appearing at the airfield of the 354th Air Service Squadron, near Naples, Task number 354 was to prepare aircraft for assignment to front-line squadrons. Monty noticed an F5E Ray which was a photo reconnaissance version of the P-38 that required a test flight after repairs, he stole the F5E and flew the plane north towards German-occupied Italy, landing in Milan. .

On October 13, 1944, where he was taken prisoner, his plane was captured perfectly intact and was handed over to the Rosarius Circus, a special Luftwaffe unit that tested captured Allied aircraft, as for many years he managed to convince his captors that had defected to the axis. They had use for the Germans and many were used to transmit German propaganda over the radio to the Allied forces in 1944. Monty did a radio test in Berlin, but it wasn't very good. He worked briefly at the Reich's Roonfunk Gesellschaft, the German state radio station alongside the Axis. Sally, another American traitor whose real name was Mildred Gellers, instead of becoming a radio host, Monty joined the SS and was inducted as a Führer or SS Second Lieutenant in the SS Standard.

Kurt Eggers. A special propaganda unit of uniformed war reporters. Correspondence provided to the front line. units this was dangerous work and many died in action others worked in the rear areas writing for the ss newspaper or Broadcasting Monty served alongside another American this man was a louisiana born ss fuhrer or captain halpsterm named peter Delaney who was believed to have previously served in the French Foreign Legion and may have been instrumental in getting Monty into the unit in the SS. monty used his mother's german maiden name, vitopt. The unit also contained at least three Britons and one New Zealander, some of whom later served in the British SS unit.

Monty of the British Free Corps in the SS was to write a pamphlet to distribute to Allied prisoners of war urging them to join the fight against communism. He was serving with the SS Standarta Kurt Eggers in northern Italy when Germany surrendered and he entered captivity in the United States still wearing his SS officer's uniform on May 10, 1945. He was court-martialed in 1946. for desertion and theft of an airplane. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but his service in the ss was overlooked. His prison sentence was suspended and incredibly Monty was able to re-enlist in the Army Air Forces in February 1947 as a private at the time of his honorable discharge in January 1948 Monty had been promoted to sergeant his traitorous past finally caught up with him few minutes after his discharge from the armed forces when he was arrested by the FBI accused of acts of treason under the name Martin Vitopt he was charged with 21 acts of treason on January 17, 1949 Monty pleaded guilty he was sentenced to 25 years and fined With ten thousand dollars paroled from Leavenworth in 1960 Monty lived in obscurity until his death in 2000, age 78.

Thanks for watching, please subscribe and share and also support my channel on PayPal and Patreon details in the description box below.