The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-12-20
GENERAL ARMY HEADQUARTERS OF
 U. s. FORCES IS AT HAUTE MARINE
Scene of Great Activity With Hurrying Officers and Orderlies, the Town is More American Than French With Modern Facilities Installed By Our Men.

Chaumont, France, Dec. 20-(Cor- respondence of the Associated Press) This little city of the Haute Mu-ne is the home of the General Head quarters of the American Expedition ary Forces. Until now its mention has been taboo and the whereabouts of "G. H. e." one of the secrets of the war.
 Here lives the Commander-in- Chief and in the buildings of the French garrison are housed the of fees of the General staff and ali the auxiliary organizations that go with 1.-the nerve center of the army. A city of normally about fiftten thou sand inhabitants, Chaumont lies on the Eastern railway lines, 163 miles east of Paris. It was formerly the capital of Bassigny and is now the capital of the Department of the Haute- Marne.
 Like most of the older cities of France, Chaumont seems to have been founded on a site of strategic defensive value. It crowns @ high plateau between the Marne and the Suize and from the walls and towers of the old city is a wonderful view of the valley of the Marne, here the river being hardly as wide as the Marne Canal that flows beside it be- tween it's poplar bordered banks. Northward over the narrow vale of the Suize the view takes in a wide sweep of rolling forest crowned hills.
 General Headquarters were re- moved from Paris here in Septem- of Cbanu1Ont heinz Se- lected after a careful search of avail able locations. It lies in the center of what was the American training area, every camp as well as the Foul sector in which the American forces first saw battle, and all the lines from Foul eastward where we were located, being within reach by mo- tor
 The French post occupied as head quarters offices is typical of French garrisons. Three long, four story, red tile roofed barracks form three sides of a great quadrangle facing wide avenue. group of lesser buildings and the customary iron fence and or namental gates is the remaining boun- dary. On either gate post flies the Tricolor and the Stars and Stripes
 
 hand, the quadrangle, is filled with hurrying officers and orderlies and clerks, hands flash in salute, bugles give their almost hourly calls for the various military events and periods of the day, staff cars and motor cy- cles roll in and out and now and then the sentry at the gate stiffens even more rigidly and brings his piece up with more snap when a great olive drab car, shining like a yacht, slides in, the scarlet tab on the wind shield with four white stars signifying the Commander in-chief.
 Frequently the Generals car ap- breaches unheralded and so swiftly that the sentry's cry of Turn out the guard" is too late and the Com mander-in-Chief is gone before the guard can tumble from the guard house.
 Until last Spring General Pershing made his residence in a large villa near headquarters. He soon found however, that so near the workshop of the army he could not have the quiet and lack of intrusion necessary to his growing responsibilities and he removed in May last to a beautiful chateau about five miles from town Here, In a great rambling castle sit uated in the Marne valley among groves and wide sunlit lawns, he liv- ed with his personal staff. Connect ed by telephone with every divisional corps and army headquarters, his own offices in Chaumont and with Paris he did his work there when not with the army.
 Chaumont itself has become almost Americanized by the presence of the headquarters. Its little hotels are always crowded with officers. It has been very hospitals to the American occupation. Nearly every home witt a spare room is thrown open as a bit let for officers and many of tl@ fin est residences have been taken over