Dale H. Maple (September 10, 1920 – May 28, 2001) was a private in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

who helped two German

POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of ...

escape in 1943. The POWs were recaptured, and Maple was court-martialed for aiding the enemy and sentenced to death by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary' ...

. He was the first American soldier ever convicted of a crime equivalent to

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. However, his sentence was first commuted to life imprisonment, then to ten years. Maple was released from prison in October 1950.

Early life and education

Maple was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

on September 10, 1920. His working-class parents were of English and Irish extraction. Maple graduated first in his class of 585 from

San Diego High School San Diego High School (SDHS) is an urban public high school located on the southern edge of Balboa Park, in San Diego, California, United States. It is the oldest high school in the San Diego Unified School District, one of the oldest public sch ...

at the age of sixteen and won a scholarship to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. In 1941, he received a bachelor's degree in

comparative philology Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness i ...

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

, specializing in German, from Harvard and was a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. An

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

agent later described him as "one of the most intelligent men I have ever had the opportunity to interview". However, Maple was pressured into resigning from the university German Club for singing the "

Horst-Wessel-Lied The "" ("Horst Wessel Song"; ), also known by its opening words "" ("Raise the Flag", ), was the anthem of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 1930 to 1945. From 1933 to 1945, the Nazis made it the co-national anthem of Germany, along with the first sta ...

" and other

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

songs. When he told ''

The Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

'' student newspaper that "even a bad dictatorship is better than a good democracy", he was also dismissed from the campus

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

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. He was assigned, along with others under suspicion, to the

620th Engineer General Service Company The 620th Engineer General Service Company was a United States Army Corps of Engineers company active during World War II whose rank and file were American soldiers, both native and foreign born who were suspected of disloyalty or subversion.Lee, R ...

, one of only a handful of units which were not allowed to bear arms. On December 5, 1943, a detachment of the company was assigned to guard prisoners of war at

Camp Hale Camp Hale was a U.S. Army training facility in the western United States, constructed in 1942 for what became the 10th Mountain Division. Located in central Colorado between Red Cliff and Leadville in the Eagle River valley, it was named for ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. Fraternization between guards and prisoners was noticed (and resented) by ski troopers of the

10th Mountain Division The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) is a light infantry division (military), division in the United States Army based at Fort Drum, New York. Formerly designated as a mountain warfare unit, the division was the only one of its size in t ...

who were training there; many of the division's ski instructors were Austrian emigres. 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 The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (, }; DAK) was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the ...

'' Sergeants Heinrich Kikillus and Erhard Schwichtenberg from a work detail without attracting attention. After 36 hours of driving, they were within 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

. The Army convened a

court martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of me ...

and charged Maple instead under the 81st

Article of War The law of war is the component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war (''jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of warring parties (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territor ...

for "relieving, corresponding with or aiding the enemy", the "closest equivalent to the charge of treason". He pleaded not guilty. Maple's defense was that the plot was a ruse which had only been intended to draw attention to the existence of U.S. Army "Special Organizations" which had been established in World War II. 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 Myron Cady Cramer (1881–1966) was a U.S. Army general who served as Judge Advocate General during World War II when the Judge Advocate General's Department underwent an unprecedented expansion to meet wartime needs and was reorganized. Ea ...

recommended to President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

that his life be spared so he could live to see

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

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 A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...

. In 1946, Maple's sentence was further reduced to ten years. He was released from prison on October 8, 1950. Maple's three accomplices, U.S. soldiers Theophil Leonhard, Paul Kissman, Friedrich Siering, all of whom had connections to Germany, were all court-martialed for their roles in the escape. Leonhard and Kissman were 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.

Later life

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

El Cajon, California El Cajon ( , ; Spanish: El Cajón, meaning "the box") is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajón, which was in turn named for the box-like shape of the ...

on May 28, 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maple, Dale 1920 births 2001 deaths American collaborators with Nazi Germany People from San Diego United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel who were court-martialed Prisoners sentenced to death by the United States military American prisoners sentenced to death Harvard University alumni Recipients of American presidential clemency American people of English descent American people of Irish descent Military personnel from California People charged with treason