Almost copped it tonight. About 100 miles from Berlin we got suprised by a nightfighter that shot us full of holes — blew the radio out, and knocked off a large chunk of the port flaps. We manage to damage him and he went away after 2 passes. We got picked up by the lights and between the flak and some crazy jerry who came barreling down on us from 3 high, we almost went down over the city. The flak turned the tail to junk and started an oxygen fire that took 3 extinguishers to put out. At the same time our outer tanks were pouring fuel over Berlin … Our mid upper shot down the single engine fighter … Jerry actually lit him up too, so he went down easy. After getting the "Bombs Gone" I went to full throttle and jinked out of there. Number 4 motor stopped from lack of petrol … no 3 was running rough and smoking … we managed to keep her in the air and landed ok at a crash strip near the coast … Home for tea.