Old 666 is a great tale and they have their own panel at the NMUSAF, and rightly so. That said, there's not a whole lot about the actual maneuvering here but to say that the pilot banked the plane hard/steeply to give his rear gunners a shot at the attackers. What does that mean? 30 degree bank angle? 45? 60? Who knows.
I will watch it again, as I started again at Ep 1 last night. I have no doubt Rosenthal flew the shit out of the airplane. Zero. None. But a "violent maneuver" in a B-17 may look drastically different than a "violent maneuver" in a P-51 or Me 109.
Further, I am not expressing doubt that the veterans are telling the truth about what they perceived. I have interviewed literally hundreds of vets for my work. They are people like any other people, and they may be unaware of certain facts, they may embellish, come to change their minds or believe embellishments. I'm not saying that they're lying or that we shouldn't believe them. I'm saying that reality may be slightly different from what they perceive. For example, I had a Sunday school teacher shot down in a B-24 over Wewak. Every Japanese plane as a "Zero" to him, and he insisted his plane was shot down by a Zero. Turns out, reserach showed that there were no Navy aircraft (the Zero is a Navy aircraft) at Wewak at the time he was shot down. He was most likely shot down by a Ki 43 Oscar (an Army aircraft). Maybe the research was wrong, maybe he misidentified in the heat of the moment.
Bottom line, I am not doubting that an extraordinary bit of flying occurred as described in the episode. However, I remain skeptical that the "violent maneuvers" which Rosie undertook look in real life like it did with the CGI on the television.