by Marshall Trimble | Dec 11, 2023 | True West Blog
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A large number of U-Boater officers and men were captured on September 3rd 1942 and the American government, apparently wanting to get them as far away from water as possible, sent them to Arizona. They arrived at the POW camp at Papago Park in January, 1944. In the fall of that year a group of them were planning an escape and they needed a way to get rid of the excess dirt. A committee met with the camp commander and expressed their desire to build a volleyball or faustball court. Happy to have them occupy themselves with something useful rather than creating mischief, he agreed, and they proceeded to dig a tunnel. To get rid of excess dirt from the excavation they would put it in their underwear and shake it out on the court during their volleyball games. The faustball tunnel escape plan had begun.
Over a period of three months the POWs dug a 180’ tunnel, 8 to 14 feet deep. On the evening of December 23rd and 24th 1944, twenty-five German POW’s crawled through and escaped. It was the largest POW escape inside the U.S. during the war.
Panic ensued. “Be wary of Strangers” warned FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Local officers warned the escapees were dangerous. They weren’t dangerous, they just wanted to go home.
The escapees quickly learned that getting out of Arizona was not as easy as they’d hoped. Their plan was to either cross the desert heading south to Mexico or floating down the Gila River to the Colorado River at Yuma and then float south to Mexico where they could make connections to get them back to Germany.
It was a cold, wet winter in Arizona and soon most of them were quickly rounded up. Near Coolidge, two escaping officers, Hans Kraus and Helmut Drescher headed across the desert for Mexico. On the way Drescher had stepped in some cholla and injured his foot and the wound was infected.
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On New Year’s Day 1945, Verna and Newton Cooper headed for the field to gather sacks of grain before the approaching storm. Their 6-year-old twin girls and 5 year-old son Richard were being watched by 16-year-old Leroy Ashmore. Hans and Helmet approached the yard and Richard, playing with his toy rifle, pointed it at them. Kraus was fluent in English and told the kids they were thirsty. Richard led them inside the house. The two put them at ease, saying they wanted to surrender and would wait for their parents to come home to notify the authorities. Meanwhile, they would regale the children about their adventures aboard their U-Boat. The Coopers arrived back and While Newton put the tolls away Verna went to the house to fix supper. When she entered, Hans Kraus snapped to his feet, clicked his heels and saluted “Ve are escaped German officers, and ve vish to surrender.”
Helmut Drescher was quite a handsome man, and Verna said later he reminded her of a movie star. A short time later Newton drove the prisoners to the branch POW camp at Stanfield. Verna remarked later, “The kids liked them and wanted to hear more stories.”
Three other escapees, who later became known among their fellow prisoners as, “the Crazy Boatmen,” Captain Wilhelm Gunther and Oberlieutenants Wolfgang Clarus and Friedrich Utzolino. They boldly walked through downtown Phoenix packing a homemade boat into the downtown Phoenix mixing with the Christmas revelers and wishing them Merry Christmas. They headed for the junction of the Salt and Gila rivers near Avondale. In planning their escape they had acquired maps of the area. Upon reaching Gila, which was flowing heavily due to the recent rain, they went out to a small island to assemble their boat. They decided to rest a while before setting out on the river.
While they were sleeping the river slowed down to a trickle. It was too shallow to float a boat. Ye gads, rivers didn’t go on a hiatus like this in Germany! Grounded, they decided to walk to Yuma. Near Gila Bend one stopped to wash his underwear and left it hanging to dry on a bush where some cowboys out working cattle spotted it and notified the authorities. The crazy boatmen were arrested and taken back to Papago Park.
In 1984 a group of the former POWs came back to Arizona for a 40th reunion at their old prison camp. I was one of those who got to meet and listen to their stories.
On a tour of Arizona’s London Bridge during their visit they finally got to see the Colorado River. Captain Jurgen Wattenberg was shown a copy of an Arizona Highways Magazine. On the cover was a photo the Colorado River—Arizona’s Nile. He smiled and said, “The last time I vas in your state, I haf not occasion to see dis river.”
U-boat skipper Wattenberg also got to finally see the London Bridge up close. “I always vanted to put my boat up de Thames under dis bridge,” he said.
The former POWS were heading north for a tour of the Grand Canyon. On the way they stopped at Monte Carlo, a truck stop east of Ash Fork. Several truck drivers who were having coffee overheard the men speaking in German. One burly trucker walked over to the tables and asked one of the guides, Lloyd Clark, about the group he was escorting. Lloyd later told me that it was a nervous moment as it looked like there was going to be trouble. Then the man smiled and said, “I was a merchant seaman and a German U-boat sank our ship and we were left floating in the water. The submarine surfaced and we thought we were goners, but they tossed us some life rafts and food, then wished us luck and left. My friends and I want to pay for your lunches.`
The tension was broken, and everybody had a good time.
Captain Wattenberg was the last to be captured. He’d hidden out in a cave at Squaw Peak near the world-famous Biltmore Hotel. One might say he was Arizona’s first winter visitor from Germany.
