They were brave men that knew the odds were against them and took off into the sky any way
...nasty times indeed to be an aircrew then..
A side note is that the Berlin raids were essentially using the bombers as live bait to destroy the Luftwaffe. The Air Force wanted to destroy the Luftwaffe before D-Day, to insure complete air supremacy over the invasion zones and the channel. The fighter arm of the Luftwaffe had stopped coming up to challenge bomber raids, except for a few high value targets. Unlike the British, the U.S.A.A.F had refused to pursue terror raids against civilian population centers. (The British did owe the Germans some payback.) Berlin was not viewed as an important strategic target by the U.S.A.A.F.
There was a conscious decision to attack Berlin because it was one target that was within range of the P-51D that the Luftwaffe would send up fighters to challenge. Since the P-51 outclassed the ME-109 and FW-190, this gave the U.S. a chance to grind down the Luftwaffe, in preparation for D-Day. Eisenhower himself had explained the policy to the aircrews, personally. U.S. aircrews found raids targeting civilians distasteful and understood that the target was chosen specifically because it offered the greatest probability of fighter opposition.
Yes, they were incredibly brave.
My father was a B-24 piot in the 15th Air Force 1944-1945. He never talked about his missions, only how SNAFU’d the Headquarters pogues were.