Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1917 — NIVELLE FOLLOWS A PRECISE ROUTINE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NIVELLE FOLLOWS A PRECISE ROUTINE

Commander of French Army Does His Work as Methodically as Banker. 1 HAS UTTLE TIME FOR REST > •• ~ 1 Day’s Work Begins at Seven In the Morning and Continues Far Into the Night, With Little LetUp—Master of Details. By LINCOLN EYRE. (Special Correspondence of the New York World* Paris.—From a staff officer who has been on duty at the headquarters of the Army of the Meuse since the great “come back" at Thiaumont, Douaumont and Vaux, I have obtained adt>~ tailed account of the daily life of General Nivelle, who now has command of France’s fighting forces. I am assured that the manner in which General Nivelle carries out from hour to hour his coTlossal task differs but slightly from that of other army commanders. No matter what may be going on in the front lines, the man who controls thousands of soldiers must regulate his life as precisely as the man who runs a great business enterprise in New York. Thus General Nivelle burns no midnight oil—not after midnight, at any rate. He gets a good six hours' sleep and walks into his office at headquarters, which is situated in the municipal building of a village 20 miles behind the trenches, at the stroke of seven, having partaken of the traditional French “first breakfast” of coffee and milk and bread and butter. Sitting down in a stiff-backed armchair at the big table which he prefers to a desk, the general prepares to receive the report of his chief of staff. The room in which he works has another smaller table, three or four plain wooden chairs, and a filing

General Nivelle. cabinet; nothingmore, except maps, which are There are small scale maps of every front, large scale maps of the Verdun zone, maps showing batteries and maps —showing infantryppsltlonsi, maps made from airplane reconnaissance alid ordinary staff maps, and, most Interesting of all, maps giving the whereabout of every German unit belonging to the crown prince’s army all the way rrom Verdun back to the Rhine. To Business Right Away. The chief of staff, briefly saluting his superior, plunges laconically into his typewritten narrative of the night'? doings. “The X sector was calm, but near by In Y there was brisk artillery bombardment. Shells fell thickly on the position,* but our batteries shut up the enemy without great trouble. A patrol of the ’steenth battalion of the ’tleth brigade brought !n seven prisoners, from whom we ascertained that the heavy howitzer located by our airplanes in the wood was destroyed by three shells from our No. battery of 240 millimeter guns. We brought down an airplane at 'five o’clock this morning over Douaumont; the pilot is now being interrogated. We have had 326 wounded and 97 dead in that engagement at yesterday. There is an epidemic of typhoid in the cantonment, but only four cases so far. Judging by the direction of his Are, the enemy is planning a trench raid on Hill No. . The th division asks for 10,000 75-mllllmeter and an Increase In the wine rationmeht Is asked by the ——th brigade,” etc., etc., etc. An hour is consumed in the reading of the report, which is constantly interrupted by comments and brief instructions from the general. Then he sends his dispatches from great general headquarters to other headquarters? He then devotes a scant 15 minutes ta his other correspondence —communications frofn the minister of war, from members of the government, from and""WenaltorC from simple “poilus” who violate the regulations. by addressing their “big boss" direct ~ and from friends and famfly. Meantime the table is loaded down with the day’a “dossiers”—bulky reo-

ords dealing with proceedings ih court, martial, recommendations for the awarding of decorations, special reports on matters concerning the health or the housing or the feeding or the transportation of troops—an endless flood of paper. The general signs his name until his wrist aches, hut It Is numb by the time the last of the documents has been dealt with. Telephones Are Kept Busy. Throughout all this period of signatures there are intermittent spasms of telephoning; General Nivelle must speak to Genera) Petain, General de Castelnau, the chief of the general staff, and perhaps Joffre. Often M. Briand or other officials are desirous of a word with the general over the wire. Then there are numerous up-to-the-minute reports phoned in by subordinate officers, commanders of divisions and brigades, which must be heard by General Nivelle himself. Besides, there is always the unexpected to cope with, no matter how systematized warfare may have become. The five hours to noon passes rapidly, and luncheon often finds the general barely abreast of bis multitudinous chores. Nevertheless, the meal is always served on time, for it is seldom that headquarters-finds itself without guests at this hour. General Nivelle is fond of meeting visitors to the rront and invariably invites members of the cabinet, parliamentary dignitaries, distinguished foreigners and war correspondents to luncheon with "him. .The repast is a simple one, but well cooked, for the general’s chef was a cordon bleu in one of the fashionable Paris restaurants before mobilization turned hixh ihto A “culstot r <lk Og army cook. 1 _ Immediately after lunch the general, attended usually by a single aid-de-camp, climbs into his big limousine arid sets out for the firing line. He stops at Verdun and has a chat with General Dubois, commandant of the citadel, about the day’s developments. Then he goes forward on foot to the divisionary, brigade and regimental headquarters, and on into the trenches if it seems necessary. On the way he talks with “poilus” he may chance to meet and informs himself thus at first hand concerning that most important rib in an army’s anatomy—morale.

Little Time for Rest By five o’clock General Nl veUe is hack again at headquarters, ready to listen to another series of reports, dealing with activities since 7 a. m., and to receive the maps corrected by hourly airplane reconneissance and photography. Just before dinner he confers with a representative of "each of the divisions under his command, and~\f? it be Friday holds a great conference with all his subordinate general officers. Dinner, served at half past seven, is usually a “family affair,” only the higher functionaries of the headquarters staff being present. No, sooner has the general finished eating and partaken of his demi-tasse than he is once more in his highbacked chair among his beloved maps. The evening is most reposeful part of the general’s day, in the sense that he can concentrate his thoughts on the problems before him without fear of constant interruption. Orders are given that he can be reached by tele-phone-only for extremely Important reasons, and callers are excluded unless rm. matters of the greatest urgencyT The general winds up his correspondence, and with one or two chosen counselors from among his aids-de-campstudies thp maps inch by inch, note*--every slightest change that has occurred in 24 hours, and plans how best to “nibble” the Germans, or if a battle is in contemplation or In progress, to crush them. On days during which an attack is on or the fighting is specially brisk the program is varied to the extent that the general spends more time at an observation post overlooking the field of operations —and also uses the telephone more. But in pny event, he is almost certain to go to bed at midnight, for he has learned, in common with other directors of great enterprises, that sleepless nights are seldom vyorth a clear head in the morning.