President Roosevelt and Major General George S. Patton, Jr.

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In this photo, President Franklin D. Roosevelt is sitting in a jeep while Major General George S. Patton, Jr. looks on, standing. The photo may have been taken at the Desert Training Center in Eastern California where Patton worked to establish and improve the methods of the armored units of the U.S. Army. As a Major General, Patton commanded that center from March to July 1942. In this photo Patton wears the two stars of a Major General on his service cap.

In March 1942, the War Department tasked Gen. Patton to find a desert training site that met all the criteria of the planned campaign in North Africa. The Desert Training Center (DTC), also called the California-Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA), resulted from General Patton's reconnoitering. The training area encompassed approximately 11 million acres within three states.

Today in WW II: 8 Feb 1940 Germans establish the first large Jewish ghetto in Poland in the city of Lodz. More ↓

8 Feb 1941 US House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act [265 to 165].
8 Feb 1942 Battle of Sarimbun Beach begins, the first stage of the Japanese assault on Singapore.
8 Feb 1942 Japanese Offensive in Burma begins [8 Feb-2 May].
8 Feb 1945 Battle of the Reichswald: British and Canadian forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery begin Operation Veritable [8 Feb-11 Mar].
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.