Jimgriff and impiger,
Valid point about fusing, the theory arose from eye witnesses who saw the aircraft just before impact and a common theme was a report of the cockpit "glowing."
I don't know much about the marker bombs carried by 5 Group in 1944, but I suppose that they would have been fused in a similar way to conventional HE bombs.
Impiger,
Yes, why do folk like Bader and Gibson have this "reputation" ? Is it maybe because their feats were performed during wartime when propaganda was far more important than the truth? Subsequent films such as Reach for the sky didn't exactly help by giving totally false and idealised portrayals of the characters involved that were easily disproved by anyone who had personal expereince of the man involved.
Also, to perform heroic deeds does not require you to be a saint, why can't you be a hero in a very narrow sense and a complete t***er in every other aspect of your life?