The Washington herald., 1918-09-23

French capital. Nearby, hidden h Z
wood. was one of the giant Berthss
that sAesied Paris =
Seven miles ahead along the banks
Of the Marine were the Hun horaes
In the tower sat LudendorY. his ear
agurativeIy to the ground and iiter-
ally to the wires, scheming the WIN
ring of the war in 1918.
And now that tower, closned Of
Germans, is barracks for American
aoldiers.
The chateau where Ludendorff
plotted was captured by American
troops. LYdendorn left behind REM
aasts Of his handiwork and valuable
Information Of his biighted plans.
An American battalion OF engineer
pioneers was sa1vaging In the Chateau
lie Nesie and vicinity when I visited
lit. MAJ George Blair. OF Philadel-
lphia, commanded tbe. battalion
Diversity Of Beety.
This is what tho Americans found
in the partly wrecked chateau and
the nearby Forest 70 Nesle:
Two million dollars worth Of am
munition.
Hundreds of thousands OF dollars
worth OF food and supplies.
Twenty thousand bottles of mineral
water.
CountIess empty wine bottles and
cigar boxes.
A fuIly-equipped hospital.
Scores Of newly-made wooden
crosses for graves.
A well-kept vegetable garden.
Staunchly-erecfed outbuiidings, with
double windows and walls. az II for
winter occupancy.
A huge telephone switchboard with
a network of wires
Everywhere was evidence that
Ludendorn had come to stay.
American artillery partly damaged
But the ancient towor-bailt in the
year 122s. with stone walls twelve feet
thick-was unscathed.
Surrounded by Moat.
A rickety wooden bridge led from
the chateau courtyard with its own
smaller towers, eight in number. TO
the big tower. Around 1t was a dry
moat. Within was a high. circular
room, twenty feet In diameter and
thirty feet high, with vaulted cell
ing.
Natural light came only through the
tunnel-iike door through the twelve
foot wall In the wall was a steep,
narrow stairway. winding TO the up
per chamber. The latter was identi-
cal with the lower. with one window.
Another black hole of a stairway cir
cled to the roof, where was BASIN
like spot grown with grass and
bushes. sprouting through seven
centuries
The lower chamber showed unmls-
taxable traces. including telephone
wires and map tables. of its use by
Ludendorff as the main war office
on the front The upper chamber had
been his private sleeping quarters.
Little Towers for stan.
stat oficers apparently had been
qpartered in the low stone build
ings and the smaller towers around
the courtyard. Outside the great
stone gate to the courtyard were a
dozen buildings. Four of them
formed hospital. All had been
well built, especially a larger build
ing near the tower. where Luden-
dorff's personal physician lived.
Ludendorff's garden furnished
heaps Of fresh vegetables for the
American soldiers while they sal
vaged the ammunition in the
dump" hidden in the Forest le
Nesle.
Torn ends Of a thousand teIe-
phone wires were found where they
had been ripped loose from the big
switchboard. German graves were
found in that vicinity. And in one
building were scores of wooden
crosses, being prepared for other
victims of American bullets. Those
crosses cynboliE4d the dead dream
that Ludendorff conceived in the
thirteenth century tower OF Chateau
ln NAalA