I've been listening to Dan Carlin's episode Logical Insanity which talks about the firebombings of places like Hamburg and Tokyo and so on by allied forces, and he reads an account that states pilots of B-29's wore masks to keep from throwing up at the smell of burning flesh from the cities on fire and that some crew members were horrified at the destruction they were causing. Did any bomber crews refuse to bomb cities like that or suffer mental breakdowns?
I have read quite widely about the bomber offensives and have never heard that any aircrew could smell anything of the city below them.
A Lancaster bombed from between 17,000 to 22,000 ft. while the B29 had a service ceiling of around 32,000 ft. Moving at several hundred miles an hour from this distance, I would think it highly unlikely could smell anything other than the inside of their oxygen masks.
While some bomber crewmen did suffer mental breakdowns and/or simply refused to fly, they were a small minority and even these were caused by the prolonged and repeated periods of intense and unremitting danger (an RAF bomber crew member had a 24% chance of finishing a tour of duty unharmed). Most crews simply carried on. Some volunteered for a second tour as soon as they could, preferring their chances as an established team rather than starting again with strangers.
Previous post of mine on the matter here