%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Dale H. Maple http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/dale-h-maple <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Dale H. Maple</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-01-17T13:59:17-07:00" title="Tuesday, January 17, 2017 - 13:59" class="datetime">Tue, 01/17/2017 - 13:59</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/dale-h-maple" data-a2a-title="Dale H. Maple"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fdale-h-maple&amp;title=Dale%20H.%20Maple"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Private First Class Dale H. Maple (1920–2001) was stationed at <a href="/article/camp-hale"><strong>Camp Hale</strong></a> near <strong>Leadville</strong> during <strong>World War II</strong> when he assisted in the escape of three German prisoners-of-war prisoners of war in February 1944. Following Maple’s arrest along with the escapees in Mexico, he underwent one of the most publicized court-martial trials in American history.</p> <h2>Early Life</h2> <p>Born in San Diego, California, on September 10, 1920, Dale H. Maple became a shy, frail, and nervous boy who walked with an awkward slouch. He was an only child, asocial and humorless. Maple seemed to care especially for his piano, memorizing long and difficult passages of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Grieg, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Bartok, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff. He graduated first out of a class of nearly 600 students at San Diego High School. Scholarly and unpopular, Maple spent some of his time fantasizing that he traveled extensively in Germany, and, those who knew him said it was difficult to determine when he was telling the truth. Because of his academic record, he won a scholarship to Harvard, where he breezed through his courses. He did not mix well, but eventually took up with a group of boys who played bridge five nights a week. He occasionally dated a young woman from Wellesley and attended one costume party dressed as Adolf Hitler.</p> <p>Although his mother wanted him to be a diplomat, Maple changed his major from history to chemistry in his sophomore year, then switched again, this time to comparative philology with an emphasis on German. He was always attracted to languages, even though he was a poor speller. A professor later described Maple as a brilliant language student who favored obscure languages such as Old Danish, Akkadian, and Maltese (a mixture of Arabic and Italian), in addition to Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Babylonian, Sanskrit, Assyrian, German, and many others. For enjoyment, he read Babylonian cuneiform.</p> <h2>National Socialism and Military Service</h2> <p>In 1938 Maple became partial toward the teachings of Hitler, at one point saying that the worst dictatorship is better than the best democracy. That led to his dismissal from Harvard’s Reserve Officer Training Corps curriculum. Upon entering his senior year in 1940, he intensified his studies of the German language, culture, and literature, and, as he had done in high school, continued to lie about traveling through Germany. Following graduation in 1941, Maple wanted to visit Germany, but he was refused a passport because the State Department knew of his political sympathies. He visited his father in California, where he applied for work in an aircraft plant but was rejected. On December 7, 1941, Maple called the German Embassy in Washington. He wanted to let the embassy know that if the United States and Germany went to war, and if the German diplomatic staff returned to the Reich, he wanted to go along. He was informed that his timing was inauspicious, as the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor that day, and the conversation ended. Instead, Maple entered Harvard’s graduate program in comparative philology.</p> <h2>Camp Hale</h2> <p>Upon learning that a college friend had died at Pearl Harbor, Maple applied for a naval commission but was rejected due to a long-standing ear problem. On February 27, 1942, he enlisted in the army and was placed in cryptography and radio operators’ school, even though military intelligence was aware of his political leanings. He was an excellent soldier and became an instructor, but his superiors notified him that they were aware of his contact with the German Embassy. Maple was assigned to the 620th Engineer General Service Company, which was composed of soldiers, some of them recent German immigrants who were unsympathetic with America’s involvement in the war. The 620th busied itself with tasks of a nonsensitive nature, including making camouflage nets, digging ditches, and sawing wood. After several stops at other military installations, the 620th was stationed high in the Colorado Rockies at Camp Hale near Leadville. The camp’s mission was to train 10,000 mountain and ski troops as well as their support personnel. Also at Camp Hale was a group of some 200 German prisoners of war, sent there from Trinidad, Colorado, for a work program. They were billeted behind a barbed-wire fence, and although fraternization between soldiers and prisoners was forbidden at Camp Hale as it was elsewhere, men of the 620th quickly formed a bond with the German prisoners.</p> <p>The Camp Hale commanders reacted to displays of friendship between the prisoners and the 620th by ordering the engineers to speak in English instead of German and made other efforts to subdue their political leanings. Men of the 620th, in turn, began discussing espionage, desertion, mutiny, sabotage, and guerrilla warfare. The Camp Hale administration was apparently not very strict at this time; the prisoners had a number of items they were not supposed to have, including a pistol, skis, snowshoes, American Army uniforms, radio tubes, two tents, and a still that made several barrels of schnapps. Soon after the 620th’s arrival, the prisoners snuck Maple into their compound during his three-day pass, wearing a borrowed Afrika Korps uniform.</p> <h2>Escape and Arrest</h2> <p>Friendship between the 620th and the German prisoners intensified, and finally the engineers decided that their best method of undermining the American war effort was to help Germans escape. Maple took charge of the plans, acquiring a Reo sedan and supplies for the journey. On February 15, 1944, Maple rendezvoused with two German prisoners who had slipped away from their work detail, and the trio began traveling south.</p> <p>At 4:30 on the afternoon of February 18, 1944, Mexican customs inspector Medardo Martínez, accompanied by a friend, guided his horse and wagon across the desert near Las Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico, three miles south of the international border from Columbus, New Mexico. He noticed three men, all carrying knapsacks, trudging southward across the desert—no ordinary circumstance. Martinez halted his wagon and hailed the three men to approach. None of the trio spoke Spanish, and Martinez did not speak English. His friend spoke some English, and through him Martinez inquired of the trio’s destination. One man replied haltingly that the three intended to look for work in Mexico. After discovering that none of the trio had passports with them, Martinez ushered them into his wagon at gunpoint.</p> <p>At Las Palomas, the strangers identified themselves as Eduard Muller, Edhard Schwichtenberg, and Heinrich Kikillus. They said that they were trying to reach the seaport of Tuxtla, over 1,000 miles distant, and from there travel to Germany. The man identifying himself as Muller spoke belabored English with a thick German accent. José Magnana, the chief immigration inspector in Las Palomas, was certain that the three men were German prisoners of war who had walked away from one of the many camps in the southwest United States.</p> <p>Magnana decided to turn the trio over to William F. Bates, his counterpart in Columbus, New Mexico. Having done so, Bates took the men to Columbus and telephoned the FBI in El Paso, Texas, sixty miles east. At two o’clock the following morning, four FBI agents arrived in Columbus and transported the three to the county jail in Las Cruces, New Mexico, ninety miles to the northeast. There, the FBI agents determined that Schwichtenberg was a corporal and Kikillus a master sergeant in the German Army’s Afrika Korps. Their questioning of the German-speaking man, Muller, took longer, but he finally confessed in flawless English that his name was Dale Maple, that he was a private first class in the United States Army, that he helped Schwichtenberg and Kikillus escape from Camp Hale, and that the three were fleeing America to join the German Army.</p> <h2>Trial and Later Life</h2> <p>Because the constitutional provision for treason only applied to civilians, Maple was charged with aiding the enemy and with desertion, both capital offenses. Many members of the 620th believed that President Franklin Roosevelt had dragged the United States into a war that was none of its business, and that Roosevelt was therefore a traitor. Maple told authorities that his flight was motivated by a selfless desire to call public attention to outfits such as the 620th, whose existence he considered un-American and unmilitary. Hours after his arrest, troops armed with submachine guns entered the barracks of the 620th and removed a dozen soldiers for questioning about their pro-Nazi activities. Also arrested were five Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members accused of exchanging fond glances, words, and letters with the prisoners.</p> <p>Kikillus and Schwichtenberg escaped punishment because prisoners of war were obligated to escape if possible. They were taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Worland, Wyoming, from which Schwichtenberg and two other Germans escaped one night in June 1945 (Schwichtenberg was later caught).</p> <p>On April 17, 1944, a general court-martial to hear Maple’s case convened at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Writer E. J. Kahn, Jr., who chronicled the entire Maple episode, suggested that the court-martial panel may be the highest-ranking group to ever sit in judgment of an enlisted man—three lieutenant colonels, seven colonels, a brigadier general, and, presiding, a major general so senior that he received his first star eight months before Dwight D. Eisenhower received his. After three weeks of testimony, the court found Maple guilty on all counts and sentenced him to hang. Wartime constraints required that the verdict not be announced, and it was not even announced to Maple himself. He and his attorneys suspected that he had been convicted, but they did not know for certain for seven months, when Maple was simultaneously informed that he was sentenced to death and that his life had been spared by President Roosevelt. In a statement about his decision, Roosevelt stated, “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.”</p> <p>After seventeen months in Leavenworth, the army reduced his sentence to ten years. He was released in February 1951 and returned to California, where he maintained a low profile for the rest of his life. Dale Maple died on May 28, 2001.</p> <p><strong>Adapted from Clark Secrest, “Private First Class Dale H. Maple: The Philologist,” <em>Colorado Heritage Magazine</em>, 15 no. 1 (1995).</strong></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dale" hreflang="en">Dale</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/maple" hreflang="en">Maple</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/private-first-class-dale-maple" hreflang="en">Private First Class Dale Maple</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/pfc-dale-maple" hreflang="en">PFC Dale Maple</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Fred L. Borch III, “Tried for Treason: The Court-Martial of Private First Class Dale Maple,”&nbsp;<em>Army Lawyer</em>, no. 450 (November 2010).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>Private First Class Dale H. Maple (1920–2001) was stationed at Camp Hale near Leadville during World War II. He helped German prisoners-of-war escape in February 1944. Maple was arrested along with the escapees in Mexico. He had one of the most publicized court-martial trials in American history.</p> <h2>Early Life</h2> <p>Dale H. Maple was born in San Diego, California, on September 10, 1920. He was a shy, frail boy who walked with a slouch. Maple was an only child. He loved piano. Maple memorized difficult passages of classical music. He graduated first out of a class of nearly 600 students at San Diego High School. Maple spent some of his time imagining he traveled in Germany. It was difficult to say when he was telling the truth. He won a scholarship to Harvard and breezed through his courses. Maple took up with a group of boys who played bridge five nights a week. He attended a costume party dressed as Adolf Hitler.</p> <p>Maple's mother wanted him to be a diplomat. However, Maple changed his major from history to chemistry in his sophomore year. He then switched again. This time, he changed to comparative philology with an emphasis on German. He liked languages. A professor described Maple as a brilliant language student who favored obscure languages. Maple read Babylonian cuneiform for fun.</p> <h2>National Socialism and Military Service</h2> <p>In 1938 Maple became partial toward the teachings of Hitler. Maple said that the worst dictatorship is better than the best democracy. During his senior year in 1940, Maple intensified his study of German language, culture, and literature. He continued to lie about traveling through Germany. Following graduation in 1941, Maple wanted to visit Germany. He was refused a passport. The State Department knew of his political sympathies. He visited his father in California. There, he applied for work in an aircraft plant. He was rejected. On December 7, 1941, Maple called the German Embassy in Washington. He let the embassy know that if the German diplomatic staff returned to the Reich, he wanted to go along. He was informed that he had poor timing. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor that day.</p> <h2>Camp Hale</h2> <p>Maple had a college friend that died at Pearl Harbor, so he applied for a naval commission. He was rejected due to an ear problem. On February 27, 1942, he enlisted in the army. He was placed in cryptography and radio operators’ school. Maple was an excellent soldier. He became an instructor even though his superiors knew about his contact with the German Embassy. Maple was assigned to the 620th Engineer General Service Company. The company contained recent German immigrants. They did not agree with America’s involvement in the war. The 620th made camouflage nets, dug ditches, and cut wood. After several stops, the 620th was stationed at Camp Hale near Leadville. The camp’s mission was to train 10,000 mountain and ski troops and their support personnel. Also at Camp Hale was a group of some 200 German prisoners of war. The prisoners were sent there from Trinidad, Colorado for a work program. They were housed behind a barbed-wire fence. Friendship between soldiers and prisoners was forbidden. However, the men of the 620th formed a bond with the Germans.</p> <p>The Camp Hale commanders reacted to the friendship by ordering the engineers to speak in English instead of German. Men of the 620th began discussing desertion and sabotage. The Camp Hale administration was not strict at this time. The prisoners had a number of items they were not supposed to have. These included a pistol, American Army uniforms, and radio tubes. The prisoners snuck Maple into their compound wearing a borrowed uniform.</p> <h2>Escape and Arrest</h2> <p>Friendship between the 620th and the German prisoners intensified. The engineers decided the best way to undermine the American war effort was to help the Germans escape. Maple took charge. He acquired supplies for the journey. On February 15, 1944, Maple met with two German prisoners. The men had slipped away from their work detail. The trio began traveling south.</p> <p>On February 18, 1944, Mexican customs inspector Medardo Martínez and a friend were driving a horse and wagon across the Mexican desert. They were three miles south of the border.&nbsp; Martínez noticed three men carrying knapsacks. He stopped his wagon and called out to the men. None of the trio spoke Spanish. Martinez did not speak English. His friend spoke some. Through him, Martinez asked about trio’s destination. One man said that the three intended to look for work in Mexico. None of the men had passports with them. Martinez ushered them into his wagon at gunpoint.</p> <p>The strangers said they were Eduard Muller, Edhard Schwichtenberg, and Heinrich Kikillus. They were trying to reach the seaport of Tuxtla. Tuxtla was over 1,000 miles away. From there, the men wanted to travel to Germany. The man identifying himself as Muller spoke English with a thick German accent. José Magnana, the chief immigration inspector, was certain that the men were German prisoners of war. He thought they had walked away from one of the many camps in the southwest United States.</p> <p>Magnana decided to turn the trio over to William F. Bates. Bates was his counterpart in Columbus, New Mexico. Bates took the men to Columbus. He telephoned the FBI in El Paso, Texas. The following morning, four FBI agents arrived. They transported the three to the county jail in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The FBI agents determined that Schwichtenberg was a corporal. Kikillus was a master sergeant in the German Army’s Afrika Korps. Their questioning of Muller took longer. He confessed that his name was Dale Maple. He was a private first class in the United States Army. Maple told the FBI he helped the Germans escape. The three were fleeing America to join the German Army.</p> <h2>Trial and Later Life</h2> <p>Maple was charged with aiding the enemy and desertion. Both are capital offenses. Many members of the 620th believed that President Franklin Roosevelt dragged the United States into a war that was none of its business. The men believed that Roosevelt was a traitor. Maple told authorities that he wanted to call attention to outfits like the 620th. Maple considered the existence of the 620th un-American. Hours after his arrest, troops armed with submachine guns entered the barracks of the 620th. They removed a dozen soldiers. The soldiers were questioned about their pro-Nazi activities. Five Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members were also arrested. They were accused of exchanging fond words and letters with the prisoners.</p> <p>The Germans were not punished. Prisoners of war were expected to escape if possible. The men were taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Worland, Wyoming. Schwichtenberg and two other Germans escaped one night in June 1945. Schwichtenberg was later caught.</p> <p>On April 17, 1944, a general court-martial to hear Maple’s case convened at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Writer E. J. Kahn, Jr. chronicled the Maple episode. He suggested the court-martial panel may be the highest-ranking group to ever sit in judgment of an enlisted man. There were three lieutenant colonels, seven colonels, and a brigadier general. Presiding over the proceedings was a major general. The major general was so senior that he received his first star eight months before Dwight D. Eisenhower. After three weeks, the court found Maple guilty on all counts. They sentenced him to hang. Wartime restrictions kept the verdict from being announced. Maple also was not told. He and his attorneys suspected that he had been convicted. However, Maple did not know for certain for seven months. When Maple was told, he was informed that he had been sentenced to death. However, his life was spared by President Roosevelt. In a statement about his decision, Roosevelt said, “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.”</p> <p>The army reduced Maple's sentence to ten years. He was released in February 1951. Maple returned to California. He maintained a low profile for the rest of his life. Dale Maple died on May 28, 2001.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Private First Class Dale H. Maple (1920–2001) was stationed at Camp Hale near Leadville during World War II. He helped three German prisoners-of-war escape in February 1944. Maple was arrested along with the escapees in Mexico. He then underwent one of the most publicized court-martial trials in American history.</p> <h2>Early Life</h2> <p>Dale H. Maple was born in San Diego, California, on September 10, 1920. He was a shy, frail boy who walked with a slouch. Maple was an only child. He loved piano. Maple memorized long and difficult passages of classical music. He graduated first out of a class of nearly 600 students at San Diego High School. Maple spent some of his time fantasizing that he traveled in Germany. Those who knew him said it was difficult to say when he was telling the truth. He won a scholarship to Harvard and breezed through his courses. Maple took up with a group of boys who played bridge five nights a week. He dated a young woman and attended a costume party dressed as Adolf Hitler.</p> <p>Maple's mother wanted him to be a diplomat. However, Maple changed his major from history to chemistry in his sophomore year. He then switched again, this time to comparative philology with an emphasis on German. He was attracted to languages, even though he was a poor speller. A professor later described Maple as a brilliant language student who favored obscure languages. For fun, Maple read Babylonian cuneiform.</p> <h2>National Socialism and Military Service</h2> <p>In 1938 Maple became partial toward the teachings of Hitler. At one point, Maple said that the worst dictatorship is better than the best democracy. That led to his dismissal from Harvard’s Reserve Officer Training Corps curriculum. During his senior year in 1940, Maple intensified his study of German language, culture, and literature. He continued to lie about traveling through Germany. Following graduation in 1941, Maple wanted to visit Germany. He was refused a passport because the State Department knew of his political sympathies. He visited his father in California. There, he applied for work in an aircraft plant but was rejected. On December 7, 1941, Maple called the German Embassy in Washington. He wanted to let the embassy know that if the German diplomatic staff returned to the Reich, he wanted to go along. He was informed that he had poor timing. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor that day.</p> <h2>Camp Hale</h2> <p>Maple had a college friend that died at Pearl Harbor, so he applied for a naval commission. He was rejected due to a long-standing ear problem. On February 27, 1942, he enlisted in the army. He was placed in cryptography and radio operators’ school. Maple was an excellent soldier. He became an instructor even though his superiors knew about his contact with the German Embassy. Maple was assigned to the 620th Engineer General Service Company. The company contained some recent German immigrants. They were unsympathetic with America’s involvement in the war. The 620th busied itself with nonsensitive tasks. They made camouflage nets, dug ditches, and cut wood. After several stops, the 620th was stationed at Camp Hale near Leadville. The camp’s mission was to train 10,000 mountain and ski troops and their support personnel. Also at Camp Hale was a group of some 200 German prisoners of war. The prisoners were sent there from Trinidad, Colorado for a work program. They were billeted behind a barbed-wire fence. Fraternization between soldiers and prisoners was forbidden at Camp Hale. However, the men of the 620th quickly formed a bond with the Germans.</p> <p>The Camp Hale commanders reacted to displays of friendship between the prisoners and the 620th by ordering the engineers to speak in English instead of German. They made other efforts to subdue their political leanings. Men of the 620th, in turn, began discussing espionage, desertion, mutiny, sabotage, and guerrilla warfare. The Camp Hale administration was not very strict at this time. The prisoners had a number of items they were not supposed to have. These included a pistol, skis, snowshoes, American Army uniforms, radio tubes, and two tents. Soon after the 620th’s arrival, the prisoners snuck Maple into their compound wearing a borrowed Afrika Korps uniform.</p> <h2>Escape and Arrest</h2> <p>Friendship between the 620th and the German prisoners intensified. Finally, the engineers decided that their best method of undermining the American war effort was to help the Germans escape. Maple took charge of the plans. He acquired a Reo sedan and supplies for the journey. On February 15, 1944, Maple met with two German prisoners who had slipped away from their work detail. The trio began traveling south.</p> <p>On the afternoon of February 18, 1944, Mexican customs inspector Medardo Martínez and a friend were driving a horse and wagon across the desert near Las Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. They were three miles south of the international border.&nbsp; Martínez noticed three men carrying knapsacks. He halted his wagon and called out to the men. None of the trio spoke Spanish, and Martinez did not speak English. The friend spoke some English, and through him, Martinez asked about trio’s destination. One man said that the three intended to look for work in Mexico. After discovering that none of the men had passports with them, Martinez ushered them into his wagon at gunpoint.</p> <p>At Las Palomas, the strangers identified themselves as Eduard Muller, Edhard Schwichtenberg, and Heinrich Kikillus. They said they were trying to reach the seaport of Tuxtla which was over 1,000 miles away. From there, they intended to travel to Germany. The man identifying himself as Muller spoke English with a thick German accent. José Magnana, the chief immigration inspector in Las Palomas, was certain that the three men were German prisoners of war who had walked away from one of the many camps in the southwest United States.</p> <p>Magnana decided to turn the trio over to William F. Bates, his counterpart in Columbus, New Mexico. Bates took the men to Columbus and telephoned the FBI in El Paso, Texas. At two o’clock the following morning, four FBI agents arrived in Columbus. They transported the three to the county jail in Las Cruces, New Mexico. There, the FBI agents determined that Schwichtenberg was a corporal and Kikillus a master sergeant in the German Army’s Afrika Korps. Their questioning of Muller took longer. He finally confessed in flawless English that his name was Dale Maple, and he was a private first class in the United States Army. He also told the FBI that he helped Schwichtenberg and Kikillus escape from Camp Hale. The three were fleeing America to join the German Army.</p> <h2>Trial and Later Life</h2> <p>Maple was charged with aiding the enemy and with desertion. Both are capital offenses. Many members of the 620th believed that President Franklin Roosevelt had dragged the United States into a war that was none of its business. The men believed that Roosevelt was therefore a traitor. Maple told authorities that his flight was motivated by a desire to call public attention to outfits like the 620th. Maple considered the existence of the 620th un-American. Hours after his arrest, troops armed with submachine guns entered the barracks of the 620th. They removed a dozen soldiers for questioning about their pro-Nazi activities. Five Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members were also arrested. They were accused of exchanging fond glances, words, and letters with the prisoners.</p> <p>Kikillus and Schwichtenberg were not punished because prisoners of war were obligated to escape if possible. They were taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Worland, Wyoming. Schwichtenberg and two other Germans escaped one night in June 1945. Schwichtenberg was later caught.</p> <p>On April 17, 1944, a general court-martial to hear Maple’s case convened at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Writer E. J. Kahn, Jr. chronicled the entire Maple episode. He suggested that the court-martial panel may be the highest-ranking group to ever sit in judgment of an enlisted man. There were three lieutenant colonels, seven colonels, and a brigadier general. Presiding over the proceedings was a major general so senior that he received his first star eight months before Dwight D. Eisenhower. After three weeks of testimony, the court found Maple guilty on all counts. They sentenced him to hang. Wartime constraints kept the verdict from being announced. Maple also was not told. He and his attorneys suspected that he had been convicted. However, Maple and his attorneys did not know for certain for seven months. When Maple was informed, he was simultaneously told that he was sentenced to death and that his life had been spared by President Roosevelt. In a statement about his decision, Roosevelt stated, “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.”</p> <p>After seventeen months in Leavenworth, the army reduced Maple's sentence to ten years. He was released in February 1951. Maple returned to California. He maintained a low profile for the rest of his life. Dale Maple died on May 28, 2001.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Private First Class Dale H. Maple (1920–2001) was stationed at Camp Hale near Leadville during World War II. He helped three German prisoners-of-war prisoners of war escape in February 1944. Maple was arrested along with the escapees in Mexico. He then underwent one of the most publicized court-martial trials in American history.</p> <h2>Early Life</h2> <p>Dale H. Maple was born in San Diego, California, on September 10, 1920. He was a shy, frail boy who walked with a slouch. Maple was an only child. He loved piano, memorizing long and difficult passages of classical music. He graduated first out of a class of nearly 600 students at San Diego High School. Maple spent some of his time fantasizing that he traveled in Germany. Those who knew him said it was difficult to say when he was telling the truth. He won a scholarship to Harvard, where he breezed through his courses. Maple eventually took up with a group of boys who played bridge five nights a week. He dated a young woman and attended a costume party dressed as Adolf Hitler.</p> <p>Maple's mother wanted him to be a diplomat. However, Maple changed his major from history to chemistry in his sophomore year. He then switched again, this time to comparative philology with an emphasis on German. He was attracted to languages, even though he was a poor speller. A professor later described Maple as a brilliant language student who favored obscure languages. For enjoyment, he read Babylonian cuneiform.</p> <h2>National Socialism and Military Service</h2> <p>In 1938 Maple became partial toward the teachings of Hitler. At one point, he said that the worst dictatorship is better than the best democracy. That led to his dismissal from Harvard’s Reserve Officer Training Corps curriculum. Upon entering his senior year in 1940, Maple intensified his studies of the German language, culture, and literature. He continued to lie about traveling through Germany. Following graduation in 1941, Maple wanted to visit Germany. He was refused a passport because the State Department knew of his political sympathies. He visited his father in California. There, he applied for work in an aircraft plant but was rejected. On December 7, 1941, Maple called the German Embassy in Washington. He wanted to let the embassy know that if the United States and Germany went to war, and if the German diplomatic staff returned to the Reich, he wanted to go along. He was informed that he had poor timing. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor that day. Instead, Maple entered Harvard’s graduate program in comparative philology.</p> <h2>Camp Hale</h2> <p>Maple had a college friend that died at Pearl Harbor, so he applied for a naval commission. He was rejected due to a long-standing ear problem. On February 27, 1942, he enlisted in the army. He was placed in cryptography and radio operators’ school. Maple was an excellent soldier. He became an instructor even though his superiors knew about his contact with the German Embassy. Maple was assigned to the 620th Engineer General Service Company. The company contained some recent German immigrants who were unsympathetic with America’s involvement in the war. The 620th busied itself with tasks of a nonsensitive nature. They made camouflage nets, dug ditches, and cut wood. After several stops at other military installations, the 620th was stationed at Camp Hale near Leadville. The camp’s mission was to train 10,000 mountain and ski troops and their support personnel. Also at Camp Hale was a group of some 200 German prisoners of war. The prisoners were sent there from Trinidad, Colorado for a work program. They were billeted behind a barbed-wire fence. Although fraternization between soldiers and prisoners was forbidden at Camp Hale, men of the 620th quickly formed a bond with the Germans.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The Camp Hale commanders reacted to displays of friendship between the prisoners and the 620th by ordering the engineers to speak in English instead of German. They made other efforts to subdue their political leanings. Men of the 620th, in turn, began discussing espionage, desertion, mutiny, sabotage, and guerrilla warfare. The Camp Hale administration was apparently not very strict at this time; the prisoners had a number of items they were not supposed to have, including a pistol, skis, snowshoes, American Army uniforms, radio tubes, two tents, and a still that made several barrels of schnapps. Soon after the 620th’s arrival, the prisoners snuck Maple into their compound during his three-day pass, wearing a borrowed Afrika Korps uniform.</p> <h2>Escape and Arrest</h2> <p>Friendship between the 620th and the German prisoners intensified, and finally the engineers decided that their best method of undermining the American war effort was to help the Germans escape. Maple took charge of the plans, acquiring a Reo sedan and supplies for the journey. On February 15, 1944, Maple rendezvoused with two German prisoners who had slipped away from their work detail, and the trio began traveling south.</p> <p>At 4:30 on the afternoon of February 18, 1944, Mexican customs inspector Medardo Martínez, accompanied by a friend, guided his horse and wagon across the desert near Las Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico, three miles south of the international border from Columbus, New Mexico. He noticed three men, all carrying knapsacks, trudging southward across the desert—no ordinary circumstance. Martinez halted his wagon and hailed the three men to approach. None of the trio spoke Spanish, and Martinez did not speak English. His friend spoke some English, and through him Martinez inquired of the trio’s destination. One man replied haltingly that the three intended to look for work in Mexico. After discovering that none of the trio had passports with them, Martinez ushered them into his wagon at gunpoint.</p> <p>At Las Palomas, the strangers identified themselves as Eduard Muller, Edhard Schwichtenberg, and Heinrich Kikillus. They said that they were trying to reach the seaport of Tuxtla, over 1,000 miles distant, and from there travel to Germany. The man identifying himself as Muller spoke belabored English with a thick German accent. José Magnana, the chief immigration inspector in Las Palomas, was certain that the three men were German prisoners of war who had walked away from one of the many camps in the southwest United States.</p> <p>Magnana decided to turn the trio over to William F. Bates, his counterpart in Columbus, New Mexico. Having done so, Bates took the men to Columbus and telephoned the FBI in El Paso, Texas, sixty miles east. At two o’clock the following morning, four FBI agents arrived in Columbus and transported the three to the county jail in Las Cruces, New Mexico, ninety miles to the northeast. There, the FBI agents determined that Schwichtenberg was a corporal and Kikillus a master sergeant in the German Army’s Afrika Korps. Their questioning of the German-speaking man, Muller, took longer, but he finally confessed in flawless English that his name was Dale Maple, that he was a private first class in the United States Army, that he helped Schwichtenberg and Kikillus escape from Camp Hale, and that the three were fleeing America to join the German Army.</p> <h2>Trial and Later Life</h2> <p>Because the constitutional provision for treason only applied to civilians, Maple was charged with aiding the enemy and with desertion, both capital offenses. Many members of the 620th believed that President Franklin Roosevelt had dragged the United States into a war that was none of its business, and that Roosevelt was therefore a traitor. Maple told authorities that his flight was motivated by a selfless desire to call public attention to outfits such as the 620th, whose existence he considered un-American and unmilitary. Hours after his arrest, troops armed with submachine guns entered the barracks of the 620th and removed a dozen soldiers for questioning about their pro-Nazi activities. Also arrested were five Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members accused of exchanging fond glances, words, and letters with the prisoners.</p> <p>Kikillus and Schwichtenberg escaped punishment because prisoners of war were obligated to escape if possible. They were taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Worland, Wyoming, from which Schwichtenberg and two other Germans escaped one night in June 1945 (Schwichtenberg was later caught).</p> <p>On April 17, 1944, a general court-martial to hear Maple’s case convened at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Writer E. J. Kahn, Jr., who chronicled the entire Maple episode, suggested that the court-martial panel may be the highest-ranking group to ever sit in judgment of an enlisted man—three lieutenant colonels, seven colonels, a brigadier general, and, presiding, a major general so senior that he received his first star eight months before Dwight D. Eisenhower received his. After three weeks of testimony, the court found Maple guilty on all counts and sentenced him to hang. Wartime constraints required that the verdict not be announced, and it was not even announced to Maple himself. He and his attorneys suspected that he had been convicted, but they did not know for certain for seven months, when Maple was simultaneously informed that he was sentenced to death and that his life had been spared by President Roosevelt. In a statement about his decision, Roosevelt stated, “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.”</p> <p>After seventeen months in Leavenworth, the army reduced his sentence to ten years. He was released in February 1951 and returned to California, where he maintained a low profile for the rest of his life. Dale Maple died on May 28, 2001.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 17 Jan 2017 20:59:17 +0000 yongli 2159 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org