Escape in Arizona

The 3,500 Germans at Arizona's desert-bordered Papago Park camp were full of wooden-faced horseplay. Prisoners nagged their guards, sometimes hid for days only to turn up well-fed and grinning. They were tough, picked men, almost all from Nazi U-boat crews. Beneath their erratic behavior guards could sense some hidden discipline, could only guess, month after month, at its purpose. Last week the patternless war of nerves seemed to be approaching a climax. Hundreds of prisoners formed ranks one afternoon to cheer the German advances on the western front. Then, as guards advanced, the shouting stopped. The next day—Sunday—the men...