[RSwank]

I think possibly Sloan had the wrong date from the start on his encounter report. (It may have been the date he wrote the report.) The Group was in the process of moving back to England and things were probably confused. Paper work may not have been checked as carefully as normal. Once his encounter report was "accepted" almost everyone used that date for the claim. The combat diary for the group/squadron, written daily, most likely has the correct date of April 4 for the event.