At St Vaast and Citerne the Battalion was joined by Capt. F. C. Grimwade, who assumed the duties of second in command with the acting rank of Major, 2/Lieuts. C. E. V. Richardson and P. Pyne. Capt. L. G. Rix also returned to the Battalion from Brigade Transport Officer, and 2/Lieut. O. D. Garratt was appointed Assistant Adjutant.
A course of light training was continued for a few days at Citerne under weather conditions which continued bright and frosty until the evening of the 24th October, when the Battalion marched at 8 p.m. in a veritable deluge to Longpré Station to entrain for a fresh area. The pitiless rain drenched all to the skin, but the men's spirits remained completely undamped, for the rumour had gone forth that the new area was far from the Somme, among the marshes of Flanders. The move from Longpré was made by tactical train shortly after midnight, and about midday on the 25th the Battalion detrained at Merville, whence it marched straight to billets between Neuf Berquin and Estaires, being now attached to the XI Corps (Haking) of the First Army (Horne).
No prolonged rest was, however, in store, for although the Battalions of the 56th Division were momentarily not prepared for active operations, they were perfectly capable of holding trenches. No surprise, therefore, was caused by the receipt the day following arrival at Neuf Berquin of orders to relieve the 61st Division in the Neuve Chapelle-Fauquissart area.
A preliminary reconnaissance of the trenches by officers of Battalion Headquarters and company commanders took place on the 26th, and on the 27th the 1/4th Londons and London Scottish moved forward and took over reserve billets in Laventie from the 2/7th and 2/8th Royal Warwickshires.
On the 28th October the 168th Brigade completed the relief of the 182nd Brigade, the 1/4th Londons and Scottish moving into the right and left subsections respectively of the Fauquissart sector, there relieving the 2/6th and 2/5th Royal Warwickshires, while the reserve billets in Laventie were taken over by the Kensingtons and Rangers.
The new Divisional frontage covered some 7000 yards from the neighbourhood of Richebourg l'Avoué on the right to a point opposite Rouges Bancs on the left, all the Brigades being in line and each finding its own supports and local reserves. The 168th Brigade held the extreme left of the Divisional front, the 169th being on its right, while the New Zealand Division was on its left. This extreme deployment of a numerically weak Division was justified by the quiet character of this area, and the fact that the German divisions opposed to it were equally with ourselves somewhat exhausted by recent efforts in the Somme battles and not anxious to venture on active operations. To such an extent indeed had our continued pressure in the south drained the enemy's resources that his lines opposite the 56th Division were but feebly held, and at the moment not capable of being strongly reinforced; and this area was therefore eminently suited to the recuperation of a battle-worn Division and to the training in active service conditions of the young troops from home who were shortly to join it.
The Fauquissart breastworks were in every way similar to those in the Neuve Chapelle area already described in connection with the Battalion's service in the Indian Corps, though being opposite the village of Aubers, which is on the highest part of the Ridge, were even more seriously subject to observation from the enemy lines than the Richebourg breastworks.
The village of Fauquissart, at this period in a condition of total ruin, consisted of a scattered collection of houses extending for about half a mile along each side of the Rue Tilleloy, which ran parallel with the British front breastworks and about 200 yards in rear of them. A thousand yards in rear of the Rue Tilleloy, and parallel to it, was the Rue Bacquerot, these two roads forming good lateral communication within the sector, though the former could only be used under cover of darkness. The sector was also served by three communication trenches starting from the Bacquerot, Elgin Street, Masselot Street and the Strand, the last named during the winter months usually consisting of a chain of unfordable lakes.
This sector was held by the Battalion with three companies in line and one in reserve, the reserve company holding three keeps on the line of the Rue Bacquerot, called Road Bend, Wangerie and Masselot Posts. Battalion Headquarters was accommodated in shelters near Temple Bar on the Rue Bacquerot.
The German lines opposite were heavily wired, and included two strongly marked salients, the Devil's Jump and the Wick. But although the enemy had the advantage in observation owing to his possession of the Ridge, his front trenches were far from comfortable owing to the presence behind his lines of the Rivière des Laies which, as the winter wore on, became more and more swollen, finally bursting its banks and rendering his forward defences completely untenable.