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  Thank you for posting this, Patrick, and drawing attention to my father's recollections relating to the Channel Dash. I did expect some comment/discussion on this (although that was not my reason for posting it) as I have never some across any account of the Channel dash which gives a specific reason for the German ships going undetected other than generalisations such as "misinterpretation of a radar screen".
  
  There is a sequel to David McFarlane's work to get 83 Squadron (and 12 Squadron once we discovered it) added to the Dover memorial. On David's father's aircraft a young (18 years old) member of the RAAF, Sgt. Leonard Garth Whibley died as a result of wounds during the attack on the German ships; this had been his first mssion. As his family were all in Australia, he was buried in a grave in Hebburn owned by his uncle and over the years this has fallen somewhat into disrepair as the immediate family have died. David's original intention was to get permission to reinstate the grave to its original state at the time Sgt Whibley was buried, but he then decided to approach the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and ask them if it were possible to add a CWGC headstone to the grave. They investigated this and found that this had been raised at the time of Sgt Whibley's death by the CWGC and the family were not in favour of having a CWGC memorial stone; once made, this decision stands. However, the CWGC are investigating the possibility of restoring the grave to its original state.

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