Dad was waist gunner in a B17.
Mine was a tail gunner. Spent some time in a POW camp.
Four years ago I was in Tucson, and decided to visit the huge air museum. I was standing under a B17 when an older man walked up an asked if I had any questions. No, I said, to which he replied, “Oh, poor me. Here I am with all the answers and you have no questions.” Feeling then obligated to ask about something at least, I asked him what was that hatch on top of the plane? “Oh, that’s where the top gunner was, but I wouldn’t let mine use his because he couldn’t hit anything.”, he replied. This floored me: I was talking to a real WW2 veteran, and suddenly I had a boatload of questions.