The Brigade was not yet finished with Third Ypres. On 24th September it left the battle front, and on 4th October it was in the Houlle area, where for five days it underwent general training. On 10th October the 9th Division began to concentrate in the forward area of General Ivor Maxse’s XVIII. Corps with a view to relieving the 48th Division in line. It thus became again the right division of the Fifth Army. On 12th October it entered the support line, along the canal bank at Ypres. The battle, in the meantime, had moved slowly. By 25th September we had won all the interior ridges of the Salient and the southern pillar; but we were not yet within striking distance of the north part of the main Passchendaele Ridge. To attain this, we must lie east of Zonnebeke and the Polygon Wood, at the foot of the final slopes. Haig struck on the 26th September in fine weather, and took the Polygon Wood and Zonnebeke village. On 4th October, the very day fixed for a great German counter-attack, he struck again, and by a little after midday had gained all his objectives. He broke up forty German battalions, taking over 5,000 prisoners, and now held 9,000 yards of the crest of the ultimate ridge. On the night of the 13th the 2nd and 4th South African Regiments moved up to the front line, taking over trenches held by part of the 26th and 27th Brigades, which had been engaged in that attack on the 12th which was foiled by the disastrous weather. The relief was very difficult, for the whole country had become an irreclaimable bog, and the mud was beyond all human description. There was intermittent shelling during the 14th and 15th, and much bombing from enemy planes. On the night of the 16th the 2nd and 4th Regiments were relieved by the 1st and 3rd. For five more days the Brigade remained in the front trenches, taking part in no action, but suffering heavily from the constant bombardment. Between the 13th and the 23rd of October, when it moved out of the Salient, it had no less than 261 casualties in killed and wounded. The 9th Division now relieved the 41st Division in the Nieuport area, and remained on the Belgian coast till 20th November, a period of welcome rest. On 15th October Lieutenant-Colonel Tanner, who had commanded the 2nd Regiment since its formation, left the Brigade to take over the command of the 8th Brigade in the 3rd Division. He was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel Christian. [Illustration: THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES.] [Sidenote: _Nov. 6._]