jeffb (your #7467),
There might have been cases where the fighter, closing rapidly on its prey on a firing pass, would overshoot the Lanc after firing and appear in point-blank range of the front guns, having ignored the advice (on a poster put out by SEAAC):
"After attacking, go DOWN when you break -
Or the Jap rear gunner will make no mistake !"
And in the case in which Flt.Lt. (later Wg.Cdr.) Nicolson won his VC (I've told the story here long ago), it is surmised that the same thing happened.
I think you're right, the Bomb Aimer was a "dogsbody" for most of the trip.
Danny.