The bomber air crews faced bad times as well. Some missions had 25-50% losses. Mathematically losses were so high a crew could not fly enough missions to rotate out of combat. Chance and luck did get a few crews through. It must have been hell packing belongings up for buddies who just never returned, shot down, killed, wounded or just missing in action.
Had a shooting buddy who was cursed being small of statue. He ended up in the ball turret, as a gunner. One mission it got so damaged and he could not get out of it when the were forced to land. The right side landing gear had taken damage as well. His fear was it would collapse when landing and the turret would get crushed with him in it. It didn’t but he always said he wished he was six inches taller. They would not have put him in it then. War might seem cool when you are ten but when you hear what some of those guys went through cool is not what I’d call it. My father called it weeks of boredom followed by minutes to hours of intense action was his word. Guess it covered everything from stress to outright terror. God bless the all.
