"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that it all happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer."
I think the guy accomplished exactly that when he got things right.
I agree. For Whom the Bell Tolls, for example---that sounds like a real action you'd expect to find in a history book.