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By the time No. 123 had completed 17 months at Debert there was much speculation and rumour about the Squadron's future,  "Here we have 25 fully trained top-notch pilots and nobody seems to want them. It would certainly seem that there is a horrible lack of co-ordination between AFHQ in Canada and AFHQ overseas. Why train pilots - and the pick of their classes too - only to let them go stale?"  All the pilots had been recommended for overseas posting, but none had gone since May. Hopes were quickened somewhat in mid July when F/L J.B. Prendergast and F/O G.N. Sharpe got a "long overdue" break and departed on embarkation leave.  "The effect on morale was terrific”. With the exception of the C.O., S/L Rankin, Jim Prendergast was the last of the original group of pilots.  He had arrived at Rockcliffe in October 1941 as a sergeant and had risen to Flight Lieutenant and second-in command, "He has always been more than anxious to get overseas, but despite this he put all he had into his work with the Squadron and did an excellent job."

These two postings seemed to break the ice and were soon followed by eight more, the delighted pilots being F/Os J.R. Hogg, R.A. Porritt, S.A. Killgore, F.M. Thomas, E.J. Allen, C.L. Burgess, C.C. Leigh and R.N. MacDonald. The last-named officer almost missed his posting. On the day that the order came through (12 August) he was making a low level cross country flight when his Harvard fouled a high tension cable which sheared off part of the coupe top and gave the pilot a nasty gash on the top of his head.

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Shortly after this S/L Rankin returned to Debert from a visit to A.F.H.Q. with the news that the Squadron was soon to be disbanded and its personnel posted overseas.  As full details were lacking there was uncertainty and considerable dismay that the Squadron, into which so much hard work had gone, was apparently not to remain intact.  For some weeks the unit lived on a day to day basis "in a sort of suspended animation", wondering what the future might hold.