The Palen Pass Maneuver Area was the largest training zone within the Desert Training Center/California-Arizona Maneuver Area, where exercises included the mock battles of Palen Pass and Southern California involving two divisions and supporting units divided into opposing teams, one trying to move through Palen Pass and the other trying to prevent passage. This training tested the skills and tactics troops had gained during 13 weeks of instruction before they were transferred to World War II battlefronts. From 1942-1944, thousands of soldiers with guns, tanks, artillery, and airplanes moved through this otherwise calm and deserted area. In this harsh desert environment, 7 armored divisions, 13 infantry divisions, and many non-divisional units were trained, totaling over one million men, before service in the war that ended the holocaust and defeated the armed forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan.