Orders were received on October 5th, 1917, for the relief of the 97th Infantry Brigade by the 125th Infantry Brigade. The Battalion accordingly withdrew to Coxyde that night, and on the following morning left for Adinkerke on the way to fresh fields and battles new.
THE YPRES SALIENT.[ToC]
Passchendaele—gallantry of attack—casualties—Hilltop Farm—move to Landethun and Yeuse—Serre Sector—close of 1917.
At Adinkerke, on their way to the Ypres Salient, the men were embarked on barges on October 6th, 1917, and journeyed by canal to near Rosendael where they billeted and where Lieut. Colonel J. Inglis rejoined the Battalion from leave and resumed command. They then underwent intensive training at Uxem until the 24th, when they left en route for the Eringham area in accordance with the forward move of the Brigade Group. The next day saw them at Rubrouck and on the next again they arrived at Broxcele where training was again entered upon and continued until November 9th.
About this period Lieut. Colonel Inglis and the Adjutant, Captain F.E. Dunsmuir, were away from the Battalion making a preliminary tour of inspection of the line on the Ypres front.
On the 10th, the Battalion was once more in column of route on their way to Wormhoudt, and on the following day, to Watou to "Road Camp" in the St. Jan Ter Biezen area, where training was resumed, and this time once more within sound of the rumble of the guns. But that didn't upset the H.L.I., whose 16th and 17th Battalions met in the final of the Brigade Football Tournament, which was won in easy style, 5 goals to nil, by the Chamber of Commerce boys. Four days later they defeated the 32nd Divisional Supply Column in the semi-final of the Divisional Tournament, and then two days after that, meeting the 2nd Royal Inniskillen Fusiliers in the final, the 17th H.L.I. carried off the Championship, repeating their performance of the previous year against the same finalists.
On the following day the Divisional Commander addressed the Brigade, which was drawn up on the football field, and reminded the men of the sterner duties that now lay before them, and expressed the hope that they would maintain the honourable traditions associated with the name of the 97th Infantry Brigade—which, indeed, they more than maintained.