After visiting the château, keep along G.C. 206, towards Lihons.
Skirt the southern end of Chaulnes Wood, near which, on either side of the road, are two powerful concrete blockhouses and other German defence-works.
ENTRANCE TO GERMAN SHELTER AND BLOCKHOUSE IN THE CHÂTEAU PARK.
Lihons (3 km. beyond Chaulnes) is next reached.
Lying at an important junction of several roads, Lihons was already in enemy hands when the front-line trenches were made.
Starting from Rosières-en-Santerre at the end of October, 1914, the French first reached and carried Lihons after a series of fierce engagements, then progressed beyond it, in the direction of Chaulnes (only 3 km. distant). For more than a month the Germans counter-attacked almost daily, in an endeavour to reconquer the lost trenches, but were each time repulsed.
Exasperated by their failure, they then bombarded the town without respite, and when the Allied Offensive of 1916 began this shelling was further intensified.
Lihons, a small country town, the streets of which—bordered with low houses—ran in all directions from a large, central square, was quickly reduced to ruins. The houses fell down one after the other, and the church suffered irreparable damage.
The church was one of considerable interest. The choir, transept and lower part of the tower, built at the intersection of the transept, were finely proportioned and dated from the thirteenth century. The other parts of the building were fifteenth century.