. Bell telephone magazine . itprovided 101,000 miles of telephonecircuits. Desert Maneuvers The story of wartime telephones inthe California desert for Army ma-neuvers is unique in communicationhistory. When General Patton ar-rived on the scene in March of 1942,he drew a triangle on a map and said,This is it. A week later, thousandsof troops began to pour into thesmall railroad towns, form into con-voys, and disappear in the desert. The maneuver area covered 30,-000 square miles—more territorythan do the States of Massachusetts,Rhode Island, New Hampshire andVermont taken together. Several oft
. Bell telephone magazine . itprovided 101,000 miles of telephonecircuits. Desert Maneuvers The story of wartime telephones inthe California desert for Army ma-neuvers is unique in communicationhistory. When General Patton ar-rived on the scene in March of 1942,he drew a triangle on a map and said,This is it. A week later, thousandsof troops began to pour into thesmall railroad towns, form into con-voys, and disappear in the desert. The maneuver area covered 30,-000 square miles—more territorythan do the States of Massachusetts,Rhode Island, New Hampshire andVermont taken together. Several ofthe camps were established 50 ormore miles from the nearest town ortelephone exchange. Telephone menon occasion had to drive 150 to 200miles to clear a single case of round trip of more than 400 mileswas required to visit the three tolloffices at Blythe, Needles, and White-water in this area. Eleven telephonebuildings were built there, includingthe toll offices and four repeaterstations. Thirty-seven positions of. Prodigious quantities ot lumber from the Pacific Northwest have gone into the war this Magazine,* to which accountmay be added:—The line was builtin collaboration with the Army toprotect coastal communication in theevent of enemy attack and provideservice for 19 proposed airfields * Se;e Building the Wests New TelephoneRoute, Magazine, Winter 1944-45. 1945 The West Coast in the War 121 switchboard were installed, 50 pri- perts from Riverside and Los An-vate branch exchange switchboards, geles, who worked around the clock,2,000 telephones, more than 50 pub- installing tie trunks and other modi-lie telephones, and some 25,000 miles fied arrangements to link the mobileof physical and carrier circuits. Gross equipment and the dial system. Lessconstruction for the project amounted than 48 hours elapsed before Armyto $1,700,000, and 175,000 man- personnel were operating the board hours went into the job. Troops began to pitch tents atthe base camp, later named
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