An inauspicious first mission for us. We'd only just reached the point where we'd expect to encounter the enemy when shells slammed into the nose. Both of Indech's arms were shattered. Healy went to pull him out of the turret while I threw Thelxinoe into a corkscrew. Our rafts were torn up and MacNair's guns knocked out before I got us away.
It would be a long trip to Berlin without guns in the mid-upper turret, and pointless with our bomb aimer disabled, so I turned us for home. Indech will lose his arms, but returning early probably saved his life.
Warrant Officer Gregory Hamilton
Pilot, Thelxinoe
February 20, 1944
38 Peckham Damage Points