The Germans didn't seem to care we were coming. No nightfighters spotted on the way in, none over the target. Searchlights and flak were aimed elsewhere. The TIs were drifting badly, so Vallente dropped dead-on a fire … seconds before the Master Bomber identified it as a decoy.
The Germans suddenly seemed much more interested in preventing us from returning home. Out of nowhere, what Vallente later recognized as a Me-110 tore into our port wing. Both engines were damaged, and #2 had to be feathered. Significant structural damage was sustained, and the aileron was knocked out. I commenced evasive action and we eventually got away.
Then Rhodes saw the unmistakable form of a Ju-88 coming up behind us. He hit the '88, but it kept coming. I corkscrewed until Xenakis drove it off.
The size of Ju-88's made it easy for Rhodes to spot the next one. This time Rhodes missed and the '88 hit, taking out the starboard flap. Evasive action wasn't enough, and the '88 hit us again. Holes seemed to be opening up all over Stardust, including a good-sized one in the bomb bay that made us glad we'd already been to the target. Perhaps the Geman pilot thought if that didn't take us down, nothing would, and gave it up as a bad job. Whatever the reason, we were glad to make it back to base without casualties.
F/Lt Thomas Raines
Pilot, Stardust
December 19, 1944
115 Peckham Damage Points