 On 14 August 1941, Mackay handed over command of the 6th Division to Herring.Mackay departed Cairo for Australia by flying boat on 22 August.En route, he stopped in Singapore to confer with Bennett, now the commander of the 8th Division, which was based there, and had dinner at the Raffles Hotel with his son, Lieutenant Iven Mackay, an officer with the 8th Division's 2/18th Infantry Battalion.