On September 4, 1916, the French reached the outskirts of these woods, but failed in their attempts to carry them entirely. The Germans maintained themselves there till March, 1917, on positions sufficiently strong to allow them to hold Chaulnes, this village being outflanked everywhere else. Chaulnes was occupied only when the Germans fell back upon the Hindenburg Line. The British having relieved the French troops during the winter of 1916, from the Somme to the Avre, entered the place almost without striking a blow on March 18, 1917. [Illustration: CHAULNES. GENERAL VIEW OF THE TOWN.] The Germans recaptured Chaulnes in March, 1918. On August 8 of the same year--their front having been pierced before Amiens--they were forced to evacuate the Montdidier "pocket" and to retreat to the outskirts of Chaulnes. They reoccupied their positions of the trench warfare period, and the remains of their ancient defence-works were still strong enough to enable them to hold up the British pursuit. The town was only carried on August 28, after being surrounded. [Illustration: CHAULNES. THE CHÂTEAU.] Chaulnes was razed to the ground. The low brick-and-rubble houses which lined the wide straight streets sheltered a population of about 1,250 inhabitants. Very few of them escaped total destruction. _Return along the same road by which Chaulnes was entered and follow it to the junction of G.C. 143 with G.C. 206, at the exit of the town._ The ruins of the =château= are seen on the left, near the fork. This sumptuous château was built in the seventeenth century by the de Luynes family, for whose benefit Chaulnes was raised to the rank of a duchy-peerage in 1621. Madame de Sévigné stayed there in 1689, and extolled its magnificence and grandeur. It was surrounded by a vast park, which she compared to that of Versailles. [Illustration: CHAULNES. THE CHÂTEAU PARK. _In the foreground: Fragment of the entrance gate between the graves of two German officers._] The outbuildings were still standing when the late war broke out; to-day they form a shapeless accumulation of _débris_. The park was entirely cut up with German entrenchments, of which only a few concrete machine-gun posts and underground shelters with concrete entrances remain. The fine old trees of the park were reduced by the shells to mutilated stumps. Near the entrance-gate of the château is a powerful system of defence-works, consisting of a machine-gun blockhouse and inter-communicating underground shelters, the entrances to which may be seen near the side of the road. _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. _=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.