Continuity mistake: In the beginning where the soldiers are ambushed. One person goes to blow the trumpet (puts it in his mouth) and then the next frame has an up close shot bringing it up to his mouth again. (00:01:47)
Continuity mistake: During the transportation of the first wave of Air Cav soldiers (the one led by Lt. Col. Moore), the number of helicopters changes from around six, to around sixteen, then back to six.
Continuity mistake: When Colonel Moore told the one soldier to tell his men to fire three rounds at anything that looks suspicious. Colonel Moore stood up and fired right away not giving the soldier any time to tell anyone.
Continuity mistake: When Galloway is helping carry Jimmy he grabs Jimmy's legs. The leg skin and muscle slides down to his ankles exposing bone due to the severity of the burned flesh. A short while later Galloway is carrying the wounded man and his legs are blackened but no bone is showing.
Continuity mistake: The blood on the face of the second-in-command of the French forces in the beginning constantly changes. First he got sprayed by blood from his commander, but even as he runs his fingers over the right side of the face its perfectly clean, the blood only covers front right side of his kepi, then as he covers from the jeep explosion its further back on the kepi. As he then gives orders to the trumpeter, the right side of the face is covered in blood, the trumpeter stands on the commanders left and sprays blood everywhere when he gets shot, but the commanders left side stays completely clean. Moments before and as he is stabbed, both his face and kepi is clean of any blood.
Chosen answer: There is no definitive information on this topic, and although factually accurate, a technical problem with a weapon was probably not enough to build an entire sub-plot, and would not hold the interest of the moviegoer. There were enough casualties without having to take into consideration weapon malfunction.
Macalou