Forget the line up of Heavy Bombers in pristine condition on the flight line in the Dam Busters film with the aircrews standing together joshing as they waited for the call to go.
The more truthful sight would be men clumped together around the mainwheel throwing up in anticipation of the next 10 hours of freezing cold and non stop terror.
Squadron Commanders would judge the usefulness of his men by how much he perceived they were suffering from the "Shakes"
Battle of Britain aircrew lost as many men to "Cracking Up" as to physical wounds sustained in the fight,
Sailors and Soldiers if they got leave away from home would spend it sleeping and drinking themselves insensible,
The German Airforce was even worse as the crews would serve with the unit to which they were posted from the first day of arriving at the base until either the end of the war or their demise,
At least British Empire and American Aircrews were rested after so many sorties before returning to battle,
British Soldiers would be sent to R & R centres when far from home and if that was not available they were withdrawn from the line for hot meals and sleep,
My Uncle Taff fought in France in WW1 and he scoffed at the tales ex soldiers would tell of having served for weeks or months without relief,
He never spent more than a fortnight in the line before being withdrawn to be rested,
Unfortunately as we discovered soldiers returning from leave were indeed rested and because they were more relaxed than their mates they had "Lost that Edge" and casualties amongst men recently returned from leave were consequently higher.
By the standards of today's Armed Forces many of the men who were waiting to go into "Battle" (Air/Sea or Land ) in WW2 would have been declared unfit for further service.
You could get imprisoned or worse for "Shell shock" in WW1 whereas today PTSD is properly recognised for what it is and the sufferer is removed to a place of safety.
But plenty of men and women are borderline and spend years suffering nightmares and worse,
The Whole country was at war in 39/45 so there was always someone you could talk to who would understand,
Today's ex service personnel are pretty much on their own and the British Man is famously reticent when it comes to expressing his feelings and bottles it up and most times it is his family that has to suffer with him.
:lolno
One of my favourites would be the black and white 'Paths of Glory' with Kirk Douglas, looking intense and outraged. He's seen only sporting a medal ribbon, an enormous shell-hole of a dimple, and a scowl in the trenches- and later, medals in court. 
They had to.
