My thoughts exactly. However, it wasn't really the moment to challenge it. The audience had fallen silent in response to the story, although whether they were moved by the bravery of the mayor, or whether - like me - they were distracted by alarm bells going off in their heads, I'm not sure. It was supposed to be a talk about the Wars of the Roses... how we moved onto an alleged incident in the Battle of the Atlantic, I really couldn't say!

Incidentally, I've just noticed a fairly major typo in my original post: "if there was an incident which may have survived the story" should, of course, have read "if there was an incident which may have INSPIRED the story" - my apologies for any confusion caused.