 As it was realised that there was a need for increased fire support, this was later increased to four guns per battalion, operated by a section of one officer and 32 other ranks.At the end of the Gallipoli Campaign, the AIF was reorganised and expanded in preparation for its transfer to the Western Front, and the machine gun sections within each infantry battalion had been consolidated into companies assigned at brigade level.The first three of the battalion's constituent companies had been formed in Egypt in March 1916 and at that time they had been assigned to the 8th, 14th and 15th Brigades respectively, arriving in Europe in mid-1916.