I sent a small raiding party to an inactive planet

I received the following report

Attacker Loss: 0 Defender Loss:0
winnings Metal:5.823 Crystal:2.911 Deuterium:889
Debris Metal:0 Crystal:0

Attacker loss: 0 is the important bit - so why have my ships not returned?

This has now happened twice, what's happened are they still out there somewhere?

Cheers for any enlightening remarks

Did you check your overview screen? If not, look, if the ships have not returned, you will see that there is a time which shows when they return.

Your fleet screen has the most info on your fleet activities. If it is still in the air, it will be shown there. If not, check your empire screen to see if perhaps it landed on a different planet than you thought it would. If the problem still persists and you cannot locate your ships, send an e-mail to webmaster@zorgempire.net explaining your problem and with a link to the related combat reports.

You should be able to locate your fleet using the ways karroth has mentioned.

One reason I think you may not be able to find your fleet is due to an in-game option...can't remember what the default is.

Just for any future attacks and missions, in the options from the menu (on the left)
scroll down to general options section,
next to "Overview screen - Show fleet return" there is a check box. make sure this is ticked and you will be able to see your fleet returning from missions on the overview screen
Then click "save changes" underneath.

General Options
Sort planets by :
Sort Order :
Select Background Theme:
Overview screen - Show fleet return <-- This one needs to be ticked
Include in Score Board?

Thanks - will check those options