Kindred soul

It was a vigorous drawing of a Wren firing an Oerlikon at an aeroplane flying very low towards her. The drawing was in sepia crayon. The Wren was a broad-shouldered, dark-haired girl, hatless, leaning back upon the strap that held her in the shoulder rings, tense, unsmiling, intent upon the sights.  ...
As she fired the wheels came down; she knew that something had happened but it meant nothing to her. She went on firing and the glass and perspex nose of the cabin shattered, and three bright stars appeared inside the cabin quickly in succession. It reared up suddenly and passed right over the L.C.T.s in a steep climb towards Mastodon; she scrambled round with the gun to get it on a reverse bearing, but now her own ship blanked her fire.
~ Nevil Shute, Requiem for a Wren 

This book is one of my favorites.  I couldn't say exactly why, but when I first read it, I was swept away.  I understood it completely.  I understood her as if she were me.  Kindred souls.  No doubt.  But how can you be a kindred soul with a fictional character?  I don't know, but it is nevertheless true. 
I have dry-fired (or pretend-fired, I suppose) an Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft gun -- an example on the Jeremiah O'Brien, a World War II Victory ship, and one on the Pompanito, a World War II fleet submarine.
I have live-fired a .50 cal. heavy machine gun and the Mk 19 belt-fed grenade launcher, so I can understand the technical details and sensations of firing such a heavy weapon, though, of course, I haven't shot down an airplane and killed the crew.
But I think that I could do it, both from a weapons skill point of view and from an emotional point of view.  I don't think I would freeze up and be unable to fire.  But who knows?  It would depend on the circumstances and my mental state.  By nature, I'm a lover not a fighter and most of the time I was in AFG I was miserable.  Or at least I thought I was.  In retrospect, my time there may have been the high point of

Sighting up the 20 mikemike Oerlikon on the O'Brien.

my life. I know you are not supposed to say something like that -- that falling in love, getting married, having a baby, etc., etc., is supposed to be the high point of your life, but, trust me, none of it compares.

APA President Adams under air attack

In the novel Away All Boats by Adm. Kenneth Dodson, another novel I liked very much and actually learned about how to serve effectively in the Navy from, there is a powerful description of being on-board an APA, troop-carrying attack transport, when it becomes the target of kamikazes. The desperate attempts to shoot down pilots who fight to die by sailors who fight to live was powerfully conveyed.
  I had no trouble imagining myself in the harness of an Oerlikon facing down a dive-bomber that has no intention of pulling up and I have got to shoot it out of the sky.  There is no other option.  Light him up and blow him up.  Or die in the attempt.