The Largest Axis POW Escape on American Soil: The Great Papago Escape (1944)

Nearby Phoenix, Arizona, lies what once was Camp Papago Park. Nearing the end of the Second World War, a bit over 3000 German Prisoners of War were housed there. Although Camp Papago Park's location was relatively isolated, in late 1944 it became the scene of the largest Axis POW breakout on U.S. soil: the Great Papago Escape.

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:40 Preparing the Escape
6:47 The Manhunt
10:18 The Captain

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The content of this video covers events, people or concepts via a lecture-style presentation that is educational and historical in nature. Every video is original content by House of History. The events relating to conflict in this video are portrayed in their historical context without either value judgment or an ideological message attached to it. There is no intent to shock, upset or disgust. The goal of my channel is to make interesting lecture-style videos, no more, no less.

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Sources:

Harvey, Miles, 2000, The Island of Lost Maps. Page 154.
Hoza, Steve. PW: First-Person Accounts of German Prisoners of War in Arizona. E6B Publications, 2002.

San Bernardino Newspapers, December 1944.

Written by House of History

Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons

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[dawndickson]

Can just imagine their faces upon reaching a dry river bed! All that effort for nothing! Fascinating piece of history. A German accent is hard to hide. Especially in the dessert. Thank you for your research and sharing with we history buffs. Greetings from Pennsylvania.

[DaveMurrow]

Cool history! I just biked around Papago Park this past weekend, and drove up 62nd St from the Park up to Thomas Rd., without knowing what I drove past!

[arizonaalchemy]

I am here in Arizona. A history buff I decided to go explore the old Papago P.O.W. Camp grounds. Bits and peices of the camp still remain on site. Read all of the local details of the camp's history. Started a search on here for vlogs. Thank you, Sir. Your version is more concise than what I have read here. Well done.

[simunooi]

Reminds me of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, a Luftwaffe pilot shot down over Britain and transferred to a POW camp in Canada. He was the only POW to successfully escape back to Germany during the war. There was a movie made about his exploits called The One that Got Away.

[oslonorway]

The kayak guys and the dude who badly needed to do his laundry made me laugh.

[lepkeb]

The very good treatment of German pows on American soil was a bone of contention with the American public that referred to these POW camps as the fritz Ritz.
The pows had better food than most American civilians at the time who were subject to rationing.

The last German escaped POW did not turn himself in until the 1980s.

[BatchelderPatrick]

So many Americans have no idea of these stories. If only I had known to ask my mother about them before she - and that generation - died. Some German POW's in Texas were simply set free after the war, married local women and spent their lives here - as if the War had never happened. Your videos should be shown in American history classes in schools.

[bradkempton]

I live about 120 miles out roughly 3 hours East of where Papago prison is (its now a park and zoo). The terrain the escapees had to cross to get to Mexico is worse than you can imagine. It's only about 150 miles, but it's 150 miles of pure Arizona desert where everything is either trying to bite you, poke you, or sting you. That's on top of the horrific heat which routinely reaches 115° F during the summer and below freezing during the winter. My hat goes off to the POWs just for attempting it.

[thomasswafford]

I was reading about some of the P.O.W. camps in my home state of Tennessee. One German prisoner was a fan of Country Music (not me). He escaped to go to the Grand Ole Opry and came back. One morning he was standing at the front gate waiting to be let inside.

[mbryson]

I had no idea the U.S. kept POWs in Arizona. Good place for it, especially in the 1940s.

[bradkempton]

Being from Arizona, i always forget how hard it is to pronounce the different names of places here. Most of the names aren't pronounced anything like you would think looking at the spelling. The Gila River for example is pronounced as "Hela" instead of the Gi sound is should make. Tucson which is s city is pronounced as Tooson. The names are a mixture of Spanish and Native American languages. Marly Apache in the South and Navajo in the North.

[jst]

Your narrative is always educational, and entertaining. Thanks.

[DardanellesBy]

I’ve only heard the story in general, this is the first I’ve heard the interesting details. Thanks!

The part about the street cleaner meeting the last escaped POW made me think of Hollis P. Wood from the movie “1941”: “Jesus Palomino, a Nazi!”

And that part about the Arizonian definition of a River can also be applied in parts of California. Too bad, how sad for those kayak guys. They tried so hard.

[ftdefiance]

Papago Park was located about 4 miles from downtown Phoenix and close to the towns of Scottsdale and Tempe.

[randyalanko]

Late to the party, but my father was on the last victim of the U162 Capt Wattenberg. When the Star of Oregon was sunk, the U boat drew near the life boats and asked for the Captain. The sailors said he went down with the ship., so Wattenberg asked about the ship, cargo, etc. Finally he indicated the direction to land (Trinidad) and said "Have a good voyage, boys"!

[goonigal]

Thanks for this story! He would have never found a train station in Phoenix. We don't have one 🙂 It’s in Maricopa 60 miles south. Argh, snakes are enough to keep me from hiking, here. They had to escape at New Year, that's the coldest time here. Yep, good old Gila River is mostly dry river bed. The desert is the reason, security was not rigid. Great story.

[laurakuhn]

I live in Phoenix. FYI Tucson is about 90 miles South of Phoenix. Mexico is about 90 miles further South.
Tucson is pronounced Two son
Gila River, Gila is pronounced : He lah
Piestawa Peak was then known as Squaw Peak

[negativecharisma]

As an arizonan i can confirm we have a frighteningly liberal definition of a "river"

[TheLittlered]

I am going to over look the pronunciations since many have called you on that. The mountain that the captain escaped to, I believe was Squaw Peak. They may have renamed it since I was there. I was caught doing, let's say adult activities on the road up to it by the cops. 😂😂😂

As far as the largest man hunt in AZ history, I do not think so. I believe that was in 1918 hunting for the Powers boys. Over 5000 people hunted for them. I have been to the cabin where the shoot out took place.

BTW, I have ridden a bike to Papago park and Squaw peak from my house. I didn't know about the history that those places held. For that I thank you.

[freebirdw]

What a story! This played out like a reverse Hogans Heroes episode.