To volunteer for a tour of 30 ops when the losses were around 5% (i.e. you would statistically last 20 flights) was incredible bravery (although I doubt the figures were widely known at the time).
My father was an engine fitter with Bomber Command (and later the Fleet Air Arm), I remember him saying that he soon stopped making friends with air crew as they came and went too quickly.
As an aside, the ground crew also had a pretty poor time, much of the servicing was done out of doors, in all weathers and up a very long ladder (have you seen how high the engines are on a Stirling?) and more ground crew were lost to flu than fighter pilots were lost in the Battle of Britain (have to say I'd rather die of flu than being shot to pieces).
There are many books & films on the subject but for me the stand-out hero has to be Leonard Cheshire VC
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