The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-17
AMERICAN CORPS IN
 AMAZING DUGOUT ON ST. M|H|EL FRONT
Was Bomb and She'll Proof and Had Every Con-
 venience for Staff Work

With the American Troops in France, October 25.--(Correspondenc of the Press.)-An amazing under ground shelter or dugout equipped With many luxuries is the home of the stan of one American army corps. which took a prominent part in the St. Mihiel fight. It is little less than an under ground city club, with offices, sleeping quarters, baths, restaurants, Kitchens, electric lights, telephone and belpoys in the persons of orderlies and mes sengers and many other appurtenances of hotel life. , It's occupation has permitted the stan of this corps to operate in close touch with the fighting troops much more | closely behind the lines than such corps ordinarily ventures r From the outside the place was so in Iconspicuous, standing about 200 yards from the road, that 99 men out of 100 motorists would have driven by without seeing it at all. The one hundredth would have seen merely slight eleva- | ton in the muddy plain, with two or three dark holes in the ground that l might have been old sneii cralers VT l anything else.
 In reality the mud and grass cover ing was nothing but concealment of | 30-foot "ceiling" of reinforced concrete,' the black holes we'll camouflaged en- frances leading down slopine run way to the brilliance of the electrically lighted interior. So stoutly was the whole constructed that an enemy shell of biz calebre would scarcely do more than chip off piece of the top, and no ayiator's bomb could ever, even hit lting directly, do much damage
 Inside, parallel with the road and trayersing the length of the dugout, ha spnq a n Sfraaf' | of the institution, in which the com handing general rubbed shoulders with the orderlies and messengers as they went from office to office. Off this | main street led minor streets running to the rear and being used, for economy of space, as sleeping rooms for the en- listed men at night. Artificial ventila- tion provided for the constant purifica- ton of the whole dugout, and the s1nel throughout was clean and. sweet.
 of the small streets. and off the bis lone two were the onices, constructed Likewise for economy of space. Eacl was about 10 feet wide and quite deep
 with a narrow table running the lengtl lof the rooms at which sat the officer land their assistants, working, working lall the time, answering the telephon levery minute or so. giving instruction
 and receiving reports.
 Instead of having the operations de partment in one building, the intelli
 gence in another, and others scattere
 in as many more, all were here to
 gether, in offices with walls as nearl
 as sound proof as possible, under
 ceiling just high enough to enable
 tall man to walk stand withou
 stopping, so close together that a mo lment could put one in touch with tn
 other, if necessary, yet vastly far apal i-as far as any mutual or one-sided dis iturbance was concerned
 At the end of the big corridor wa
 the kitchen, compact to the point
 being a kitchenette. When the cook
 finished each meal the side stree
 could suddenly be transformed into Ii
 tie cozy dining rooms. each with i
 llong wooden table and narrow woode
 benches. In less time than 1t talk
 to tell the generals mess was read
 lthe superior officers mess and all tf
 others.
 No sound could penetrate the grei
 concrete roof, and the great bombar Is Iment that opened the St. Mihiel "shov
 could not be heard. as an Associat' 95 Press correspondent wno was there G
 attest Yet outside the building u
 cannon were going great guns" al
 the whole night was laundering wi
 the noise.