HMS Dasher answers

Sir, Anyone who has grown up in Arran will know that HMS Dasher, a fleet aircraft carrier, was lost in a spectacular explosion between Brodick and Ardrossan on March 27, 1943. We are now approaching the anniversary of the disaster, hence my reason for writing.

Your readers will know that HMS Dasher exploded and sank in mysterious circumstances. Those mysteries continue to this day as we approach the 77th anniversary of the ship’s sinking. Most importantly, families of the sailors still seek answers as to the last resting place of their loved ones. Of the 379 fatalities, only 13 lie together in marked graves in Ardrossan Cemetery. Of this number, one, John Melville, is almost certainly the 'Man Who Never Was' immortalised in the classic war film of Operation Mincemeat and who therefore cannot be buried in Ardrossan.

Despite contemporary eyewitness accounts that many more bodies were recovered and further rumours of mass graves somewhere in Ayrshire, the families of the lost sailors are still no nearer finding the whereabouts of their loved ones. Successive governments have refused, and continue to refuse, to answer questions. Shamefully, some of the first and greatest clarity has come from the German Navy which authoritatively stated the sinking was not due to its action.

The full, tragic story is told in John and Noreen Steele’s excellent book 'The American connection to the winking of HMS Dasher'. It is to be hoped that in these days of the government’s commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant, and as we approach this anniversary and the commemorations associated with VE Day, that at last the families, whose grief is still fresh after all these years, will be provided with answers. Surely, this is the very least of their entitlement.

Yours, Graham Short, Kilmarnock.