The competing source lists name HMS Despatch, HMS Calcutta, or possibly both. The discrepancy appears amid dozens of vessels moving between tasks, flotillas, and ports, while some destroyers were temporarily reassigned and some formation labels changed. Even official documents do not resolve every ship assignment neatly enough to justify certainty. The surviving evidence leaves the cruisers' participation unresolved, an honest conclusion when reconstructing a complex wartime operation.
Notable Point · 4:12-6:55
Why Operation MB8's ship lists disagree
Competing records place HMS Despatch, HMS Calcutta, or possibly both in MB8. Hectic reassignments and changing flotilla labels make the operation difficult to reconstruct.