The Camp Pilot Knob was a sub camp of the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

Desert Training Center The Desert Training Center (DTC), also known as California–Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA), was a World War II training facility established in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert, largely in Southern California and Western Arizona in 1942. It ...

Imperial County, California Imperial County is a county located on the southeast border of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 179,702, ranking as the least populous county in Southern California. The county seat and largest city is ...

. The main headquarters for the Desert Training Center was

Camp Young The General George S. Patton Memorial Museum, in Chiriaco Summit, California, is a museum erected in tribute to General George S. Patton on the site of the entrance of Camp Young, part of the Desert Training Center of World War II. Exhibits in ...

, this is where

General Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (11 November 1885 – 21 December 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, then the Third Army in France and Germany after the Alli ...

's 3rd Armored Division was stationed. Camp Pilot Knob was designated a

California Historic Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...

(No.985). Camp Pilot Knob is near

Felicity, California Felicity is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community in Imperial County, California. The town was established in 1986 by Jacques-Andre Istel who bought the land in the 1950s and developed it in the 1980s after selling off ...

, in

. Camp Pilot Knob is 2 miles north of the US-Mexico border, just north of the now

Interstate 8 Interstate 8 (I-8) is an Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, California, almost at the Pacific Ocean, to the junction with I-10, ...

. The camp is five miles northwest of

Yuma, Arizona Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 95,548 at the 2020 census, up from the 2010 census population of 93,064. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, Metropolitan ...

and 2 miles west of the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

. The camp was built just north of the Felicity train station, which was used to bring the troops and supplies to the camp. The camp is named after a hill south of the camp.

History

Camp Pilot Knob was built in April 1943. The Camp Pilot Knob was built to prepare troops to do battle in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

to fight the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. When completed the camp had shower buildings, latrines, wooden tent frames, water storage tanks and a water treatment plant. North of the camp were a number of fire ranges for training Troops. The camp was closed in June 1944. Trained at the camp from June 1943 to August 1943 was the 85th Infantry Division. From the camp the 85th was moved to Italy to fight Nazis. The 6th Infantry Division trained at the camp, they departed to fight in the

New Guinea campaign The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Territory of New Guinea on 23 January and Territory of Papua on ...

and the

Battle of Luzon The Battle of Luzon (; ; ) was a land battle of the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II by the Allied forces of the U.S., its colony the Philippines, Mexico, and allies against forces of the Empire of Japan. The battle resulted in a U ...

. Also trained at the camp was the 36th Reconnaissance Squadron and

44th Reconnaissance Squadron The 44th Reconnaissance Squadron is a unit of the United States Air Force's 432nd Wing, Air Combat Command stationed at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, where it operates unmanned aerial vehicles. The squadron is assigned to the 432nd Operations ...

. To both train and serve the troop, the 54th Evacuation Hospital operated at the camp.

Marker

Marker 985 at the Camp Pilot Knob site reads: Erected 1990 by State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management and John P. Squibob Chapter No. 1853, E Clampus Vitus. (Marker Number 985.)Marker Database, Camp Pilot Knob, 985
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External links

Training Center Boogie – Sung by John Malcolm Penn, song about : Desert training camps

References

{{Imperial County, California California Historical Landmarks 1942 establishments in California

History

Marker

See also

External links

References