It had been the intention that the 168th Brigade should pass fourteen days in rest, but this idea had to be unexpectedly abandoned owing to a concentration of troops near the frozen inundations of the Yser, where it was feared that a sudden German advance over the ice might have somewhat disturbing effects on the Allies' positions. This caused the services of the 168th Brigade to be requisitioned once more, and on the 1st and 2nd February it relieved the 111th Brigade of the 37th Division in the Neuve Chapelle sector, the Rangers and Kensingtons occupying the line, while the Scottish moved as Works Battalion to billets at Croix Barbée and the 1/4th Londons as Training Battalion to Fosse. On the 1st February 2/Lieut. C. E. V. Richardson was admitted to hospital. After training at Fosse for six days the 1/4th Londons took over from the Kensingtons the right subsector of Neuve Chapelle sector on the 8th February. The Battalion now found itself after a lapse of over a year once more in the area in which it had passed so many months with the Ferozepore Brigade. The sector taken over comprised the old Rue du Bois (right, centre and left) sections, and extended from a point opposite the German Boar's Head Salient on the right to some 250 yards north of the La Bassée Road on the left. Considerable changes had now taken place in the method of holding the line; old well-known trenches had fallen into disuse and fresh ones had taken their places. Those who looked for the Crescent, Orchard Redoubt, and other well-remembered spots found them broken down and no longer occupied. The front line breastwork was now occupied in isolated posts at intervals of about 150 yards, each garrisoned by a platoon. Each post was protected on its flanks as well as in front by wire entanglements, while the intervening firebays had been either filled in or choked with barbed wire. The communications within the sector were tolerably good, but the breastwork was thin and in many places low, a natural result of leaving long portions of it unoccupied for several months. The main line of resistance was now in the reserve or "B" line which, on the right of the sector, was represented by Guards Trench in front of the Rue du Bois, and on the left by the old British front line (as it had been before the Battle of March 1915) in Edgware Road. Battalion Headquarters in 1915 had occupied dugouts on the Rue du Bois, but were now at Lansdowne Post, which formerly had housed a whole battalion. The defence scheme provided for holding the "B" line at all costs in the event of serious attack, so that the front line became virtually a line of outposts. This method of holding the line in great depth was not only far sounder than the former method of crowding the whole strength into the front trench, but was also more economical, as the sector which formerly had demanded a garrison of a whole brigade was held by one battalion.