Meanwhile, in England, the whole question of future production was being strenuously dealt with by Lieutenant-Colonel Stern, who, on November 23, assembled a conference in London at which the future production of tanks was explained as follows:
That at the time of the conference there were 70 Mark I machines in France, and it was hoped to deliver improved types of this tank as follows: 50 Mark II tanks by January; 50 Mark III tanks by February 7; Mark IV tanks at the rate of 20 per week from February 7 to May 31. Further, that Mark V tanks would be available in August and September 1917, and that a new light tank, called Mark VI, would be ready for trial by Christmas 1917.
Unfortunately, on account of the difficulty of production and the constant changes demanded in design, the above programme never materialised, and though Mark II tanks were sent out to France, no Mark IV machines arrived there until after the battle of Arras had been fought and won.
Early in the new year the battalions of the Heavy Branch underwent a further reorganisation: they were slightly reduced in size and the number of their machines was cut down from 72 to 60; each company, theoretically consisting of 20 tanks, was divided into 4 sections of 5 tanks each; for practical purposes, however, it was found that a section could not deal with more than 4 tanks, so the number of tanks was reduced to 48, of which 36 were earmarked as fighting and 12 as training machines.
In March 1917 General Anley was appointed Administrative Commander Heavy Branch Machine-Gun Corps with his headquarters in London, Brigadier-General W. Glasgow taking over the command of the Training Centre at Wool. In May he was succeeded by Major-General Sir John Capper, K.C.B., and the Tank Committee under his chairmanship was formed to systematise and strengthen co-operation between the Army and the Ministry of Munitions. On the 1st of this month, Colonel Elles was gazetted Brigadier-General Commanding the Heavy Branch in France.
The experiences gained during the battle of Arras, in April 1917, resulted in proposals being put forward for the expansion of the Heavy Branch from nine to eighteen battalions, nine to be equipped with heavy, and a similar number with medium machines.[20] These proposals mark an important stage in the development of the Heavy Branch and they were destined to be the subject of many discussions.