Men who climbed into those B-17’s were brave, determined men. Some of the daily loss rates must have told those men the odds of rotating out were very, very bad. Watching planes, with friends go down, or fellow crew men get hit or killed had to sobering. By 1943-44 fighter tactics had been perfected against bombers and the attrition rates per mission was grinding down plane and crew numbers at almost impossible to replace numbers. If 10% per mission were lost getting to 25, then 28 or 30 mission was almost impossible. Some made it, many did not.

I had two uncles in Sherman’s, who fought and survived Tigers, but both thought their cousin, who was a ball turret gunner was either braver, crazier or dumber than they were. Differed depending on the moods of three vets who rarely talked about the war. Few family vets talked about what they saw or did in the war. None of them tolerated REMF who talked a Great War but saw almost no combat. They knew and had a way of shutting them down.