The Desert Training Center: Yesterday and Today

Above, the Freda QM Depot site is abandoned today, with only tank tracks to recall its history. The same scene in the 1940s included lines of Shermans, Lees, and Stuarts prepared for railroad loading. At right, MG Patton and MG Walton Walker observe an exercise. I ARMOR - November-December 7988 25

Typical layout of DTCs tent camps is shown above. Each was about one by two miles in area. "FCI is the flag circle, the center of the camp. Below, the camps were spread over a vast area of the Mojave Desert. "Seven armored divisions and 13 infantry divisions trained there, but not one of them ever fought in the deserts of North Africa."! + i

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'-., -. -'-. DMalonal Camp With an eye on the major armor battles in the deserts of North Africa in the early years of WWII, the War Plans Division of the War Department concluded that specially trained and equipped troops were needed to fight in desert and other extreme climatic conditions. The Army chose MG George S. Patton, Jr., commanding general, I Armored Corps, to survey, establish, organize and operate a training center where U. S. armor troops and their support elements could learn and practice desert fighting. The site Patton selected in southern California became the U. S. Army Desert Training Center (DTC) Mqjave Desert, California. Seven armored and 13 infantry divisions trained there, but not one of them ever fought in the deserts of North Africa. All went to Europe and the Pacific theaters, including Alaska, because none of them completed their training in time for the North African invasion. The DTC became the Army's largest maneuver area, unhindered by civilians and unrestricted as to property damage. Although Patton remained in command of the DTC for only live months (Mar-Aug 1942), the center has always been "Patton's Training Ground." In 1943, the name officially became the California-Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA), but the Patton connection remained. Ten or more tent camps (see Figures 1 & 2) were built, at least six of them in California and as many as four in Arizona. Six major combined maneuvers were held on DTC-CAMA environs from mid- 26 ARMOR -

- - A 19 )r to Camp 1oun-tain It the huge relief map of the mi area, a may ge a foot bridge was needed to see it all. Earth was shaped to duplicate topog-raphv was spraye t for permanence. At right, few fence stubs remain ana desert scrub the map's ains." - c d The garrison flag flies over Headquarters, Desert Training Center in photo above. Camp Young is in the background of this photo, taken in 1942. Today, the headquarters site is eroded and overgrown. The power lines were postwar additions to the landscape. "... The combined DTC-CAMA enclosed 77,750 acres in California and Nevada and up to 790,000 men served there..." for the ground forces. Seven general officers commanded the DTC-CAMA during its brief ex- 1942 to early 1944, when CAMA ceased operations and was dismantled. Opposing "red and "blue" armies consisting of armor, infantry, mechanized cavalry, tank destroycrs, artillery, air units, and support units thrashed out the basics of armor doctrine in the desert wastes. They stressed operations with restricted water supplies, sustained operations remote from railheads, speed in combat supply, supply in darkness, desert navigation, laying and lifting minefields, maintenance and evacuation of vehicles, hygiene, sanitation, and The DTC site was ideal for its purpose; the terrain varied from mountains to canyons, from dry lakes to sand dunes. Cactus and low bushes gave no cover, and summertime daytime temperatures zoomed to 130 degrees, while winter saw the mercury plummet to freezing. Occasional flash floods in the canyons taught troops to be aware of such occurrences. Nearby towns were small and ill-equippcd to handle the masses of troops, which made life doubly hard for the sand-chewing trainees. Army Air Force planes, based at Rice Army Airfield, istence: MG Patton, MG Alvan Gillem, Jr., MG Walton H. Walker, MG Charles H. White, MG Wade

H. Haislip, MG Alexander M. Patch, and MG Jonathan W. Anderson. The combined DTC-CAMA enclosed 17,750 acres in California and Arizona and up to 190,OOO men served there in all capacities from combat training to messing to medical to maintenance. All that remains of these camps and training sites are some scattered camp name signs, a few paved bits of road, some wrecks of buildings, gravel paths, foxholes--and memories..- medical training. provided close-support--and attack, 28 ARMOR - November-December 7988 I

Above, ranks of M3 medium tanks of the 33d Armored Reg., 3d Armored Division, as seen in 1942 at Camp Iron Mountain. (Note relatively rare cast-hull version at left, front row.) View is to the east and the Turtle Mountain range, with the Colorado River aqueduct crossing the desert to rear of the tank park.. Today, little more than the tank tracks remain. This outdoor stoie altar, erected by the 183d FA Group at Camp Iron Mountain, is one of the few surviving landmarks from the DTC days. Francis G. Blake is a paleontologist - a scientist who studies fossils and ancient life forms - and an amateur historian with particular interests in motor vehicles. He is a regular contributor to Wheels and Tracks and Army Motors, the quarterly journal of the International Military Vehicle Collectors Club. He has been studying the Desert Training Center sites since 1983. ARMOR - November-December 7988 29