Are y'all having as hard a time as I am?

I'm new to the bomber crew community, love the game. I typically do not save-scum on games like this as it seems to defeat a core gameplay mechanic as well as principal of losing people in warfare, there's even a monument with names on a wall which is a detail I appreciate, but I am horrible at the game. So all this in account I don't want to, but I also don't want to spend 4000 dollars on a new crew every time my tailgunner and subsequently fuselage gets sawn in half, as typically the crew member attempting to render aid or get on the gun gets shot to hell by the big planes as well. So I've been save-scumming a lot. Is this normal? How do you keep your crew alive? I've been treating the plane as disposable at this point trying to save crew but I'm not even past the second mission and I'm at a 50% attrition rate using backup gear, and each mission gives like 3000$ if I do everything right. What's the strat?