ArtKramr wrote:

The common wisdom in WW II was that tail gunners and bombardiers suffered the
highest casualties among bomber aircrews. Anyone have any actual statistics on
aircrew casualties by position in USAAC bombers?

I wish you had asked that a few weeks ago, as I had a source here which gave the
stats for B-17s. AFAIR, pilots were top of the list (because they had to stay
while everyone else got out), with ball turret gunners about equal in loss rate.
Bombardiers were actually among the best in survival rate if not the best (I think
the navs were the best), because many of the attacks were from the rear, and
because they had an escape hatch in their compartment that was easy to get to.

Guy