The staff was
quartered in a handsome old municipal building; the ground floor,
devoted to living purposes, quite like an exclusive club; the business
offices upstairs.
Gen. von Haenisch took me aloft and explained to me how business was
done. A good telephone operator, it developed, was almost as important
as a competent General--the telephone "central" the most vital spot of
an army. Here were three large switchboards with soldiers playing
telephone girl, while other soldiers, with receivers fastened over their
heads, sat at desks busy taking down messages on printed "business"
forms. In the next room sat the staff officers on duty, waiting for the
telephone bell to jingle with latest reports from the front. There was
no waiting because numbers were "engaged" or operators gossiping; you
could get Berlin or Vienna without once having to swear at "long
distance." Gen. von Haenisch had his chief of field telephone and
telegraph trot out what looked like a huge family tree, but turned out
to be a most minute chart of the entire telephone system of the --nth
Army. It showed the position of every corps and division headquarters'
regiment, battalion, and company, and all the telephone lines connecting
them, even to the single trenches and batteries.
Gen. von Haenisch suggested having some fun with Gen. von X., commanding
the army next door on the right, and I was made Acting Chief of Staff
for two minutes, getting von X.
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