The Sensée marshes from Etaing to Palluel had formed the left flank of the Canadian Corps advance in its break through the Drocourt-Quéant line during the Battle of the Scarpe, and now formed a natural defensive flank, facing northwards, to our advanced positions on the Canal du Nord. In this area the 56th Division relieved the 1st Division. On the evening of the 7th September, after a a halt of one night at Vis-en-Artois, the 1/4th Londons took over the positions of the 2nd Royal Sussex on a front from Eterpigny Wood to a point east of Etaing. The line was continued to Lécluse by the Kensingtons and thence by the 169th Brigade.
The Battalion was now in country which hitherto had been in German hands for the whole of the War, and the devastated area was left behind. Villages were still standing and houses furnished. Indeed, the civilians had still been in occupation of them during the battle but had now been moved to the rear by the French Mission. Trenches in the ordinary sense were here non-existent and the front was held by a series of outposts along the line of the Sensée with sentry posts dug in small pits behind the cover of trees and bushes. D, B, and C Companies were in line, with A and Headquarters on the hill above Etaing.
Life in this sector was comparatively uneventful. The defences were improved and a great deal of useful patrolling work carried out in the endeavour to locate fords or other means of crossing the swamps in front. For his excellent reconnaissances and reports Sergt. Heyes, M.M., received commendation.
The previous occupants of the line had evidently been cautious in the use of their transport in forward areas, for rations and stores were dumped each night at a cross-road about 2000 yards in rear of the line; a course involving the nightly labours of some 70 men for carrying duties. The 1/4th Londons altered this and had limbers at night up to the front line without any mishap, thus saving an immense amount of fatigue and trouble to everyone.
After reorganising the outpost line to a strength of two companies the Battalion handed over its positions on the evening of the 12th September to the 1st Londons (167th Brigade), and concentrating at St Rohart Factory on the Arras-Cambrai Road were 'bussed back to Feuchy where they occupied shelters in Battery Valley, an area which a month previously they had held as a front line!
In this area a good deal of useful training with rifle and Lewis gun was put in, and a friendly boxing tournament with the London Scottish one evening afforded a pleasant relaxation. The Battalion was here joined by a large draft of officers, including Lieuts. A. Bath and T. R. Fletcher, and 2/Lieuts. Bradley, R. D. Bushell, J. Coley, P. W. Green and S. P. Ferdinando; and 2/Lieut. S. W. Neville (7th Londons) attached.
Lieut. E. P. M. Mosely's diary for this period affords an excellent illustration of the care taken to maintain the discipline of the Battalion at a high standard by the application of "peace-time" methods whenever the situation allowed:
... This sound principle was the means of preventing officers and men from degenerating into the "Ole Bill" type—a type which probably existed nowhere except in caricature. At Feuchy the Battalion was resting. The enemy had been swept back and had left just a desolate landscape, a smashed railway bridge and a collection of shell holes. The accommodation for officers and men consisted of holes in the ground roofed with tarpaulins and cuttings in the embankment which carried what was left of the railway line.
Notwithstanding the entire lack of civilised comforts, at 7.30 in the evenings, standing on the battered arch of the bridge which once carried the line over Spider Corner, a Battalion bugler would sound "Dress for Mess." Officers would then scurry into their holes and half an hour later emerge in slacks, well-groomed, and enter the mess, a white-washed elephant shelter, and partake of a five-course dinner with all customary mess etiquette.
On the 19th September the 168th Brigade returned to the line. The Corps boundaries were being now rearranged and the 56th Division was being side-stepped to its right, a change which was effected by handing over a portion of its left to the 4th Division and extending its right over the front hitherto held by the 3rd Canadian Division. The additional frontage on the right was allotted to the 168th Brigade, which, after the relief, held a sector east of Ecourt St Quentin, with the London Scottish on the right and the 1/4th Londons on the left. The Brigade's left flank was secured by the 167th Brigade, which, facing north-east, held the area from Ecourt St Quentin to Lécluse.