Daring Prison Escapes | Nazis in the Arizona Desert | 4

0:00Richard D. Horne:Hello, American History Tellers listeners. The live show I've been telling you about for a few weeks has a new date, October 23rd at the Plaza Theater in Garland, Texas. This is my Days That Made America tour, a thrilling evening of history, storytelling, and music with me and a band live on stage. So if you're in the North Texas area or anywhere close, be sure to come out and see me live. And more shows will be announced soon. For information on tickets and upcoming dates, go to AmericanHistoryLive.com. That's AmericanHistoryLive.com. Come see my Days That Made America tour live on stage. Go to AmericanHistoryLive.com.

0:52Richard D. Horne:Imagine it's the early evening on September 3rd, 1942. You're a low-ranking officer in the German Navy assigned to a U-boat submarine. You're cruising just below the surface of the Caribbean Sea, about 60 miles south of Barbados. You're on a mission to take out Allied merchant ships in order to impede the flow of supplies to your enemies in Europe. You stare through the eyepiece of the U-boat's periscope, scanning the surface of the ocean for enemy ships. The air in the submarine is stale and stuffy, and it makes you sleepy. But your commanding officer, Captain Jürgen Vattenberg, stands just a few feet away, gazing intently at you.

1:29Richard D. Horne:So you stifle a yawn. That's when suddenly you see something through the eyepiece. Sir, I believe there's a British destroyer at hour four o 'clock. Well, prepare to fire. Are you sure, sir? This isn't a merchant ship, it's a destroyer, heavily armed. Even better, we'll do real damage to the British Navy if we take this ship out. The water's quite rough, sir, and could impact the accuracy of our shots. I gave you an order. Every second we wait, we risk being spotted and losing the element of surprise. I said fire! Yes, sir. One of your colleagues fires the torpedo, and you watch through the periscope as it comes up to the surface and then misses the British ship by several feet.

2:06Richard D. Horne:It's a miss! It's a miss! Then fire again! But before the crew can fire more torpedoes, the water around your U-boat churns with explosions from all sides. The submarine shakes so hard you can barely stand. Where are all these shells coming from? It can't be just one destroyer. You swing the periscope around left and right. Captain, I see two more destroyers. We're surrounded. We'll fire again. Keep firing until I say stop. Do as much damage as we can. Black, greasy water pours into the sub. You look down in horror. The fuel line's been hit. Sir, we don't have much time. What should we do? Prepare to surface an abandoned ship.

2:47Richard D. Horne:Your damaged U-boat breaks through the surface of the sea, and you climb up through the escape hatch and dive into the ocean. You watch as sailors from the British destroyer prepare to pick you and the rest of your crew up in lifeboats. You realize you're about to become a prisoner of war. Your teeth chatter from the cold water and the adrenaline, but you clench your jaw. You may have been taken out of the battle, but the war isn't over. And even in captivity, you're going to do everything in your power to make the lives of the Allies difficult and advance the Nazi cause.

3:39Jesse McLean:happening wherever you get your podcasts. Does it bother you that the world is on fire? Do you also often find yourself choking on your own rage? Maybe you too perpetually feel like screaming bloody freaking murder into your own pillow. Well, hop in rabble rouser. We're going hunting for a manifesto. Listen to Dan Taberski's manifesto wherever you get your podcasts.

4:06Richard D. Horne:From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers, our history, your story.

4:27Richard D. Horne:In the 1940s, as America stepped up its involvement in World War II, U.S. soil became home to hundreds of prisoner of war camps. Enemy soldiers captured by the U.S. and Allied forces were taken to remote sites far from the fronts of Europe and Asia, Over the course of the war, the United States held more than 400 ,000 POWs in 700 prison camps throughout the country. In the state of Arizona alone, there were 23 of these prisoner camps. One of them, Camp Papago Park in eastern Phoenix, was created specifically to hold German U-boat crewmen. The harsh Arizona desert that surrounded the camp was intended to be as much a deterrent for escape as bars or armed guards.

5:08Richard D. Horne:But in 1944, a shrewd group of German POWs broke out of Papago, sparking one of the largest manhunts in American history. This is Episode 4 in our four-part series, Daring Prison Escapes, Nazis in the Arizona Desert.

5:27Richard D. Horne:In August 1944, Colonel William Anthony Holden arrived at Camp Papago Park on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona to take over as commander. The camp spread over 160 acres in a remote corner of the desert city. Wooden buildings painted white dotted the red dirt, and as Holden surveyed his new assignment, he took in the drab site with determination. The sprawling, dusty plot had been subdivided into five compounds for prisoners, as well as an area for the American guards and officers watching over them. Former barracks for members of the Civilian Conservation Corps had been converted into living quarters for the prisoners, while other buildings served as a mess hall, hospital, and latrines.

6:06Richard D. Horne:The camp's perimeter was lined with two eight-foot-tall fences with barbed wire running along the top of them, and fifteen washtowers had been erected to keep an eye on the approximately 3 ,000 prisoners held at the camp. A native of Wisconsin, Colonel Holden felt as out of place in the scorching dry desert as the Germans imprisoned there. But Holden pushed any discomfort out of his mind. He was on a mission to clean up the place. The camp had only opened the previous October, not even a year earlier, and already had developed a reputation for a host of problems. Six months earlier, in February 1944, five prisoners had managed to sneak out of the camp on the back of an army truck.

6:46Richard D. Horne:They carried with them forged documents which they hoped to use to cross over the border into Mexico. Ultimately, two of these men were arrested in Tucson after a police officer stopped to question them and heard their German accents. Most embarrassing for the Army, though, the officers in charge with Papago Park hadn't even realized that any prisoners were missing before they received a call from the Tucson Police Department. Then, that same month, four more prisoners managed to escape. All of them were caught and returned to the camp, but news of the breakouts made the front page of the local newspaper.

7:19Richard D. Horne:It was a black mark on the Army and the operation at Papago Park. Then, in early March 1944, the Army sent an investigator to look into why so many prisoners were able to escape. This investigator found many security lapses, including several unmanned guard stations and gates that were left unlocked. He also learned that guards at the main entrance failed to check identification or search trucks leaving the camp, even though prisoners had just recently snuck out the back of one. Then, just eight days after this investigator wrapped up his report, a prisoner was murdered in captivity, found hanging in the shower room.

7:54Richard D. Horne:The prisoner had cooperated with U.S. intelligence officers, sharing information about German U-boat tactics and operations, and army authorities believed his death was a warning from loyal Nazi POWs to other captured German soldiers not to talk. The escape of nine prisoners in a single month was embarrassing, but the murder of a prisoner was damaging to the U.S. war effort. Cooperation by captured German soldiers was a key method of intelligence gathering. Camp authorities knew if word got out that the U.S. Army couldn't keep its informants safe, fewer soldiers would be willing to talk. So by spring 1944, it was clear that major changes were needed at Papago Park.

8:33Richard D. Horne:The Army decided that Colonel William Anthony Holden was the man to implement them. Holden was career military. He'd served as company commander in the Army Infantry during World War I, earning the equivalent of the Silver Star for his actions during campaigns in France. Then, after the First World War ended, Holden returned to Wisconsin, where he ran a home for veterans while also serving in the Wisconsin National Guard. When World War II broke out, Holden's National Guard unit was activated, and he was sent to Louisiana to train soldiers for battle in the event the U.S. entered the war. Then, in late 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the United States officially joined the Allied war effort.

9:14Richard D. Horne:Holden was eager to go overseas and fight for his country once again, but he was diagnosed with a heart condition which prevented him from serving in combat. But the army appreciated Holden's leadership and organizational skills, so in March 1942, they sent him to Florence, Arizona, to set up a POW camp for captured Italian soldiers, many of whom were draftees who had willingly surrendered. Holden excelled at managing these prisoners, and the camp at Florence was soon considered a model for all others. The army hoped Holden could do the same at Camp Papago Park, but he would have his work cut out for him.

9:47Richard D. Horne:Not only were there many core problems with how Papago Park was run, the prisoners housed there were some of the most elite German soldiers the Allies had ever captured. The camp was specifically conceived to hold U-boat crew, and in the German Navy, being assigned to a U-boat was a prestigious position and required significant training. These were not docile conscripts, but dedicated soldiers eager to serve their homeland. And among these, there was a core group of prisoners held at Papago Park who caused the guards the most difficulty. These men still saw themselves as agents of the Third Reich, even if they were being held captive thousands of miles from the battlefield.

10:24Richard D. Horne:Their leader was Captain Jürgen Wartenberg, a narrow-faced man in his 40s. He was the highest-ranking German officer held at Papago Park when Colonel Holden arrived. In 1913, when Wartenberg was just 13 years old, he was invited by a family friend to visit the German Naval Academy. As soon as he saw the great ships there tended by uniformed cadets, Wartenberg knew he wanted a career in the German Navy. He began his officer training in 1921, but at the time his prospects for advancement were limited. Due to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that had ended World War I, the German Navy was small, with strict limitations on what type of vessels it could operate.

11:03Richard D. Horne:But when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1935, one of the first actions he took was to rapidly expand the German Navy. Wittenberg quickly rose up the ranks, becoming a loyal follower of Hitler and an ardent believer in Nazi ideology. Then five years later came the pinnacle of his career, when he was made commander of a U-boat. But just two years after that, he was captured by a British destroyer in the Caribbean Sea, which turned him and his crew over to the Americans. As the highest-ranking officer among the prisoners at Papago Park, Wottenberg served as a liaison between the German prisoners and the American guards.

11:39Richard D. Horne:But Wottenberg did not see himself as a diplomat. Instead, he felt it was his duty to Germany to make life difficult for his American captors. He was a stickler for the rules and made sure the camp followed the Geneva Convention guidelines for POW camps. He frequently reminded the guards that, as an officer, he was required to be treated with respect and dignity fitting of his rank. He complained bitterly that he didn't have private quarters. He balked if an American soldier of lower rank asked him to do anything, or even oversaw roll call. He bombarded the Red Cross with letters complaining about every petty problem he and the other German captives faced.

12:14Richard D. Horne:And one of Wartenberg's biggest complaints was that the men were denied access to gardening tools and were not allowed to beautify their surroundings. He was so adamant on this point that camp officials relented and gave the prisoners shovels and other tools, despite concern from some of the other camp authorities that these could be used for escape. Wartenberg and a corps of other officers who remained loyal to the Third Reich also encouraged all other German POWs to refuse to do anything that might help the Americans run the camp. So by September 1944, a month after his arrival, Colonel Holden realized that if he was going to clean up Papago Park, He needed to deal with Wartenberg and the other German troublemakers.

12:53Richard D. Horne:He soon came up with a surprising approach.

12:59Richard D. Horne:Imagine it's early September 1944. You're the Assistant Provost Marshal of Camp Papago Park, second in command. It's just past 9 a.m. as you walk into the camp's administrative office. It's not much more than a large hut with desks, and the scorching sun is streaming through the windows, causing sweat to beat up on your forehead. Your superior officer, Colonel William Holden, looks up from his desk as you walk in. You exchange salutes. You wanted to see me, sir? Yeah, I'm a seat. I've come to a decision regarding these troublemakers. Well, I'm eager to hear what you have in mind, sir. I've come to believe that the majority of POWs in this camp would be model prisoners, if not for these loyal Nazi officers.

13:39Richard D. Horne:They're the real thorn in our side. I completely agree. Vattenberg and the other officers are like a cancer. Their negative attitude is spread throughout the whole camp. Precisely. So we need to separate them from the others to prevent them from spreading their influence. Holden hands you a piece of paper with a list of names. I've identified these 140 officers who I see as the prime troublemakers. Starting today, we're going to move them all into compounds 1A and 1B. As you scan the list, you can feel a knot of tension forming between your shoulder blades. Well, I'm sure you thought of this, sir, but just so I understand, And aren't you concerned about grouping the most disobedient prisoners altogether?

14:17Richard D. Horne:Well, that's the point. We're going to isolate them, keep them and their bad attitudes away from the other prisoners. Well, yes, I understand that logic, but these men are very smart. And to be honest, this camp has some real witnesses. I mean, Compound 1A has a real blind spot, a place that can't be seen from any of the guard towers. I'm certain that these men will discover it if they don't know about it already. Believe me, I understand your concerns. But housing these men in different compounds certainly isn't working. We need to try something new. Well, sir, if you don't mind me speaking out of turn, did you read the report that was written after the escapes last February?

14:50Richard D. Horne:I sure did. So you know the author suggested that these officers be shipped off to different camps entirely. Oh no, I'm not going to force these troublemakers on other commanders. These men are our responsibility. We just need to figure out how to deal with them. So let's end that discussion. This afternoon, I want you to start the process of moving the men on this list into Compound One. You're still not convinced that your commander knows what he's doing, but you're in no position to disobey an order, so you stand up and give him a firm salute. Yes, sir. I'll get right to it. I appreciate it, and you'll see.

15:22Richard D. Horne:This is going to work. You nod and turn to walk out the office. You certainly hope Holden is right. But in your time helping to oversee the camp, you've come to know these prisoners. They're brilliant, disciplined, and highly motivated to cause disruption or even attempt escape. And now they'll all be able to work together.

15:45Richard D. Horne:In early September 1944, under Colonel William Anthony Holden's orders, the most troublesome prisoners at Papago Park were moved into Compound 1, which was located in the northeastern corner of the camp just inside the main gate. The compound was split into two barracks. The commissioned officers were housed in Compound 1A, while the non-commissioned officers were assigned to Compound 1B. And just as feared, as soon as they moved into Compound 1A, a few of the German officers, led by Captain Jürgen Wartenberg, began casing their new surroundings, looking for vulnerabilities. Wartenberg knew that any escape attempt would be dangerous.

16:22Richard D. Horne:He'd heard rumors that in the spring, a large group of Allied POWs had escaped from a camp in Germany. All of those escapees were caught, and 50 of them were then executed. Wartenberg was concerned that the Americans might take a similarly harsh approach to any escape attempts on U.S. soil, too. But Vattenburg wasn't going to let the specter of death dissuade him from doing what he saw as his duty. For him, it was time for the men of Compound 1A to plan their escape, regardless of the risks.

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17:31Richard D. Horne:Listen now exclusively on Audible and download the Audible app today, or off with your head!

17:36Jesse McLean:I'm kidding.

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18:50Richard D. Horne:In the early fall of 1944, German U-boat commander Jürgen Wottenberg walked a dusty patch of dirt in Camp Papago Park, where he was being held as a prisoner of war. With him were three other German naval officers who were all housed in Compound 1A. They had made an exciting discovery. On one side of Wottenberg was a small wooden shack that served as Compound 1's laundry room. About three feet south of that was a wooden bin that stored coal for the laundry room's water heater. Just past that were the 1B barracks, and about nine feet to the west was the perimeter of the camp, lined with two eight-foot-tall barbed wire fences.

19:27Richard D. Horne:One of the officers pointed out to Vattenberg that when they stood next to the coal bin, none of the guards could see them. The laundry room blocked the view from Towers 1 and 2 to the north, and Compound 1B blocked the Guard Tower 3 from seeing them from the south. Vattenberg and the other officers realized that they could use this blind spot to dig a tunnel under the perimeter gate. But Vattenberg knew that to pull this off, they would need to be highly organized. As the highest-ranking German officer in the camp, Vattenberg was in charge, and he decided to assemble a team of the five people he trusted most.

20:00Richard D. Horne:Together, they came up with a plan. In the space in between the laundry room and the coal box, they would dig down six feet. From that point, they would dig horizontally until they made it underneath the camp perimeter. The first challenge was to determine how long exactly the tunnel needed to be. It was essential that they get this measurement right, because if the tunnel was too short, they could come up directly under the searchlights and be easily caught or shot by the guards. If they extended the tunnel too far, they would dig into a canal and drown anyone in the tunnel. So their target was at the base of a telephone pole, where there was shrubbery that would provide cover as the men came up from underground.

20:38Richard D. Horne:Using trigonometry formulas they'd learned to navigate the open sea, they calculated the distance from the edge of the camp to the telephone pole. They determined the total length of the tunnel needed to be 178 feet. It would need to be about two and a half feet wide for the men to fit through. Battenberg delegated oversight of the digging to another officer named Hans-Werner Krauss. Krauss organized the occupants of Compound 1A into three-man digging teams. They worked in 90-minute shifts starting at sundown every evening using a shovel that had been given to the prisoners for gardening. The soil, though, was extremely hard and rocky, so it was difficult work.

21:14Richard D. Horne:But it did mean that they didn't have to worry about the tunnel caving in as they would have if the soil was softer. But they soon ran into another problem. What to do with all the dirt they were digging up? As a solution, Wartenberg asked for permission to level a section of the camp into a playing field for a German sport called fistball, which is similar to volleyball. The camp's commander, Colonel William Anthony Holden, agreed and even provided the men with additional shovels and wheelbarrows. Now the Germans had an area that could absorb the dirt they were digging up and additional tools to speed up the digging process.

21:48Richard D. Horne:But there is yet another part of the puzzle. what to do once they were past the camp fence. Vattenberg selected 28 men to be part of the escape. He broke them into teams of two or three people. They decided that when it was time to make their break, these teams would depart at 20-minute intervals. Once they were out, each team would be responsible for themselves. For his teammates, Vattenberg selected two men who had served with him on his U-boat, named Walter Kozer and Johan Kramer. Most of these groups had planned to head for Mexico after they escaped. The border was 130 miles south of the camp, and it would be a difficult journey over the punishing terrain of the Sonoran Desert, but Mexico was home to a large German immigrant population.

22:30Richard D. Horne:Some of the men even had relatives living there, so it seemed like the best target for their escape. As the digging progressed through the fall of 1944, the teams also gathered supplies. They stole food that was relatively lightweight and could survive in the desert heat like crackers. They secretly dyed some of their khaki uniforms so they wouldn't look like escaped POWs, and then they managed to even steal maps of the region from trucks the guards had left unlocked. Most of the teams prepared to cross the desert on foot, but one of the more ambitious trios built a lightweight collapsible boat that they could carry through the tunnel.