There is a habit of doing that.
Douglas Bader was an arrogant, bull headed, SOB, but would he have been able to get back in the cockpit if he was a "nice guy"?
Guy Gibson was another sod, disliked by the rank and file and junior officers, but again, could he have achieved what he did with 617 Squadron if he too was a nice guy?
Some recent revisions of the Zulu War of 1879 have shown that John Chard VC, the officer commanding Rorke's Drift, wasn't well liked by other fellow officers and was considered a "Most idle and useless individual" by his commanding officer.
He was still a very brave man though.
Nelson was frequently sea sick, arrogant, vain, with a high opinion of himself, who wound up his superiors because he would not shy away from telling them they were wrong when he disagreed with them, and by wearing non official awards and medals presented to him by foreign governments.
Whether you love or loathe Bader, you can't help smiling when you hear how after the war, when invited as guest of honour at a dinner in Germany with former Luftwaffe pilots, he walked into the room and said:
"My God! Didn't know we left so many of you b*st*rds alive!"
Derek Robinson's novel "Piece of Cake" about an RAF fighter squadron in the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain, was very heavily criticised when first published because his characters were real people, like Gibson and Bader, who were arrogant, rude, class conscious, stuck up, opinionated individuals, who fought like a lioness protecting her cubs when the time came.
But when you read the personal histories of veterans, they all know people just like that.
Throughout history, individuals short falls in personality have been glossed over in the official story.
Personaly, I find it makes them more interesting when you find out they weren't super human.
If the Dam Busters remake does go ahead and the script by Stephen Fry is as good as I think it will be, I hope it does do a warts and all story, as it will make it a better, more interesting story.