Desert Training in California

Unrecorded example of persuasive photography from the early days of World War II.

This interesting composite photograph shows a highly fictionalized scene purporting to be desert training in California. While the setting may be correct (a camp was established in Southern California in 1942 to prepare troops for the North African campaign), the equipment within the image was compiled from a variety of sources and stitched together mechanically. Careful examination of the photograph shows touch up work along the seams between each frame, apart from the obvious discrepancies in scale and resolution.

The piece is a part of series of panoramic photographs taken of army maneuvers and other scenes at Camp Lee, Fort Belvoir and Fort Eustis, Virginia. There are a number available in the Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia Library, several of which were published by W.R. Thompson & Co. This is the only example I can find, however, of the training scene in the California desert, as no reference is made within OCLC or elsewhere.