Theres a great passage in Guy Gibson's book Enemy Coast Ahead, where he just loses it with a load of toffs in London's clubland who are getting sniffy about some RAF boys who were getting pissed in public.

You just feel - why should these people be allowed their illusions and prejudices - when the ordinary grunts are paying the bills with their lives?

And of course Churchill was the great weaver of patriotic dreams.

I don't want to undermine your heroes - I remember when old Divis Sweeney was going on about his heroes. People need their reference points.