General headquarters was removed
from Paris here in September of last
year, Chaumont being selected after a
careful search of available locations.
It lies in the center of what was the
American training area, every camp,
as well as the Toul sector, in which
the American forces first saw battle,
and all the lines from Toul eastward,
where we were located, being within
reach by motor.
The French post occupied as head
quarter offices is typical of French
garrisons. Three long, four-story red
tile-roofed barracks form three sides
of a great quadrangle facing a wide
avenue. A group of lesser buildings
and the customary iron fence and or
namental gates in the remaining boun
dary. On both gate posts fly the Tri
color and the Stars and Stripes.
Sentries pace their posts on every
hand, the quadrangle is filled with hur
rying officers and orderlies and clerks,
hands flash in salute, bugles give their
almost hourly calls for the various mil
itary events and periods of the day,
staff cars and motorcycles 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 windshield with four white
stars signifying the commander in
chief.
Car Often Unheralded.
Frequently the general's car ap
proaches unheralded and so swiftly
that the sentry's cry of "Turn out the
guard" is too late and the commander
in chief is gone before the guard can
tumble from the guardhouse,.
