aircraft and flew to Milan on 13 October 1944. Upon landing, he surrendered the plane to the German forces. Initially treated as an ordinary prisoner of war, he was able to convince his captors, including interrogator Hanns Scharff that he had defected out of genuine conviction. His aircraft was handed over to the Zirkus Rosarius, the Luftwaffe unit that tested Allied aircraft that were captured in flying condition. Work as a radio commentator In late 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 Gunter d'Alquen, in Berlin. In 1945, Monti participated in a radio program titled "The Round Table Conference", again at the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers recording studio. The program consisted of political propaganda, in the form of discussion and commentary on political issues, and was broadcast by the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, the German state radio organization. While in Germany, Monti operated under various aliases, including "Martin Wiethaupt". Having been instructed by the Germans that it was necessary to maintain his anonymity, he was initially given the working alias of "Martin Roberts". Monti did not approve of the name and, instead, opted to use his mother's maiden name, so that if he were ever captured or killed, he could potentially be traced and identified. During this period in radio broadcasting, he came into contact with Mildred Gillars, the American broadcaster widely known as "Axis Sally", who took an immediate dislike to Monti and angrily threatened to resign from her position rather than work with him. Gillars later testified at her treason trial that Monti came into the Berlin studio one day and simply said "hello" to her. "I just looked at him, turned around and walked out without speaking" Gillars said. She then approached Adelburt Houben, her supervising radio official, to whom she gave an ultimatum: "That man (Monti) is a spy or a traitor, either he must go or I will." Houben denied her demand that Monti be removed, whereupon she said "Then I've made my last broadcast." However, Monti's lack of ability and experience as a radio commentator ensured that he made only a few broadcasts and, upon his re-assignment, Gillars returned to broadcasting shortly after. Membership in the Waffen-SS Monti then officially joined the Waffen-SS and was given the rank of SS-Untersturmführer, equivalent to his rank in the U.S. Army. While in the