After their daring breakout on the evening of December 23, 1944, the 25 escaping German POWs tried various methods to get to freedom. They would be hampered by things like rain, cold, patrols, wary citizens, cactus and a dry river bed, ultimately resulting in all 25 being back in custody just over a month after breaking out.

Starting in 1943, 3,000 German prisoners of war, mostly naval men, would be held in a POW camp at Papago Park. In 1944, 28 of those deemed to be troublemakers discovered a blindspot in their compound and set upon an audacious plan to break out and make a run for Mexico.

Starting in 1943, thousands of German and Italian POWs were shipped to Arizona. They would leave a mostly honorable legacy while the Sonoran Desert and the mountains of Flagstaff would leave a lasting impression on them.

World War II had the effect of making Fort Huachuca into a a central gathering place for Black men and women serving in the U.S. Army. Their experience ran parallel with their white counterparts, except for a notable undercurrent of segregation, prejudice, and racism. And those same undercurrents would result in a minor war breaking out on the streets of Phoenix on Thanksgiving Day 1942.

After Pearl Harbor, the military turned Arizona into one giant training ground. And many of the soldiers who funnel through the state chose to stay in the desert, chaining the course of Arizona history for decades to come.

Most people connect Pearl Harbor to the USS Arizona that sunk beneath the waves on December 7, 1941. But in the months following the surprise attack, Arizona would have a surprising connection to those who had help plan that most infamous of dates.

Though it was probably not on his mind at all, Adolph Hitler changed the course of Arizona’s history when he invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. One ramification that would unfold a year and a half later was one of the last great instances of Amerindian resistance to the U.S. government.

In 1934, Arizona’s hostility toward California and its water demands reached it zenith, culminating in the governor sending troops and a “navy,” to stop that most heinous of things - a dam across the Colorado River.

The Hoover Dam would be finished two years early, but that feat took a lot of planning, coordination, and sacrifice - and a heavy toll on the men building the project.

It’s time to talk about water once again. In this case, we discuss all the preparation that went into one of the biggest public works projects of the 1930s that just so happens to sit between Arizona and Nevada.