Dale Maple

Early life and education

Maple was born in San Diego, California on September 10, 1920. His working-class parents were of English and Irish extraction.

Maple graduated first in his class of 585 and won a scholarship to Harvard University. When he told The Crimson student newspaper that "even a bad dictatorship is better than a good democracy", he was also dismissed from the campus Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

Aiding the enemy

As a result of his pro-German activities, when Maple enlisted in February 1942, both the Army and the FBI kept files on him. On December 5, 1943, a detachment of the company was assigned to guard prisoners of war at Camp Hale in Colorado. Fraternization between guards and prisoners was noticed (and resented) by ski troopers of the 10th Mountain Division who were training there; many of the division's ski instructors were Austrian émigrés.

Maple and three others in the 620th plotted an escape. Maple purchased a 1934 REO sedan and, on February 15, 1944, picked up Afrika Korps Sergeants Heinrich Kikillus and Erhard Schwichtenberg from a work detail without attracting attention. After 36 hours of driving, they were within 17 mi of the Mexican border when they ran out of gas. The trio walked into Mexico, where they were arrested by a Mexican customs official and turned over to American authorities.

Maple was jailed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and originally charged with treason. These units held soldiers suspected of being disloyal to the United States. Maple was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. On June 22, 1944, an Army review board confirmed Maple's conviction and sentence. However, Army Judge Advocate General Myron C. Cramer recommended to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that his life be spared so he could live to see Nazi Germany lose the war."I feel that the ends of justice will better be served by sparing his life so that he may live to see the destruction of tyranny, the triumph of the ideals against which he sought to align himself, and the final victory of the freedom he so grossly abused."On November 18, 1944, Roosevelt commuted Maple's sentence to life in prison plus a dishonorable discharge. In 1946, Maple's sentence was further reduced to ten years. He was released from prison on October 8, 1950. Maple's three accomplices, Theophil Leonhard, Paul Kissman, and Friedrich Siering, all of whom had connections to Germany, were also court-martialed for their roles in the escape. Leonhard and Kissman were both sentenced to life in prison, while Siering received a 10-year sentence due to his lesser role. All three men received dishonorable discharges. They were released from prison around the same time as Maple. The charges against another soldier, Eric Hotelling, were dropped.

Later life

After his release, Maple worked for San Diego's National Steel & Shipbuilding Company. In 1964, he joined the American National General Agencies as an insurance manager. In 1978, he retired as a vice president of the company. Maple died in El Cajon, California on May 28, 2001.

References

References

1. Ellis, Robert B.. (1996). "See Naples and Die: A World War II Memoir of a United States Army Ski Trooper in the Mountains of Italy". McFarland.
2. Jenkins, McKay. (2004). "The Last Ridge: The Epic Story of America's First Mountain Soldiers and the Assault on Hitler's Europe". Random House of Canada.
3. Allen Best. (February 2004). "The pro-Nazi American soldier who aided an escape". Colorado Central Magazine.
4. (February 20, 1944). "Camp Hale Soldier Is Caught in Mexico With 2 Escaped Nazis". [[Rocky Mountain News]].
5. E. J. Kahn. (March 11, 1950). "Annals of Crime / The Philologist". [[The New Yorker]] magazine.
6. Herbert, Paul N.. (November 7, 2016). "Treason in the Rockies: Nazi Sympathizer Dale Maple's POW Escape Plot". Arcadia Publishing.
7. Connor, Joseph. (March 24, 2021). "Nazi Sympathizer in the U.S. Army". Regent, L.P..
8. (17 January 2017). "Dale H. Maple".