Character mistake: When Sedgwick is bringing the cement tunnel lid to Willy, somebody yells out "Hey Hendley" and Sedgwick answers "Hello boys". He was called by the wrong name.
Revealing mistake: When Hilts is first locked in the cooler he turns to verify the door is locked. Apparently the set wall was so flimsy the stage hand seen on the left was required to hold the wall as Hilts pushed the door, to prevent it from moving. The stage hand looks like the German guard without his rifle.
Factual error: The entrance to tunnel Dick is shown improperly; the trap door was on the side of the drain basin, not the bottom. This was discussed in the Brickhill book, and subsequently verified by research on the site (shown on the US television program NOVA) which found the original door and its lifting handles.
Continuity mistake: When Hendley and Blythe get into the German aircraft first, the cockpit is tiny and cramped, like you'd expect. However, when they cut to the studio-done flying scenes, it suddenly becomes much larger, nice and roomy.
Factual error: When the SS and Gestapo are leaving Bartlett in Von Luger's office on his arrival in the camp, they all give the Nazi salute with bent arms. The correct form was a straight outstretched arm and hand: only Hitler himself was allowed to give the Hitler salute so sloppily.
Revealing mistake: When McQueen is jumping the fence on the motorcycle, it can clearly be seen the machine used for the jump is in fact a modern offroad model, with long travel suspension, in camouflage guise.
Plot hole: The officers arrived in separate vehicles where they could view the countryside and the road leading to the camp, yet they later claimed to Hilts they knew nothing about the area.
Suggested correction: Totally wrong. They were always in covered trucks for that very reason. One of the first scenes in the guards rolling up the tarps so that the prisoners could get out of the trucks.
Revealing mistake: In the scene where the goons find 'Tom', the water that is poured down the hole is not steaming, even though the water burnt his hand.
Other mistake: When the three Americans invite the British to join their 4th of July celebration, Hilts plays the flute with his right hand the wrong way round on the instrument.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Hilts is first locked in the cooler, he is eventually let out. It shows him walking out from a view that is inside the cooler, and his coat is on one arm (I forget which arm it is). Then it shows a view from outside of the cooler,of him walking out, and his jacket is on the other arm. He didn't switch it while walking, because the clip is about 2 seconds long.
Continuity mistake: In the famous scene when Steve McQueen jumps the fence, the stuntman riding the motorcycle loses control of the motorcycle shortly after landing and he obviously fell off the motorcycle. They then cut to a scene of Steve McQueen riding off.
Other mistake: When Steve McQueen first comes to the camp he voluntarily gives up a pair of wire cutters. No POW would have done that. Tools of that nature were too hard to come by.
Factual error: When Steve McQueen is returned to the POW camp he is shown wearing "modern" handcuffs and not those used during WWII.
Factual error: Railway carriages show DB. At the time of The Great Escape it would have been REICHSBAHN.
Factual error: In the scene at the railway station, the carriages bear the 'DB' logo of the Deutsche Bundesbahn which is definitely post-war. During the war they would have carried the Deutsche Reichsbahn logo.
Revealing mistake: The searchlights in the guard boxes which overlook the camp are arc lights (studio lights) and not search lights.
Suggested correction: Absolute rubbish. And Von Luger was a Luftwaffe officer, not a die hard Nazi.
stiiggy
You need to explain why you believe this is incorrect. Do you mean they actually give proper salutes? Do you mean it isn't a mistake to show an officer give an improper salute? Do you mean the Nazi's weren't as strict on salute protocol as the mistake suggests?
BaconIsMyBFF
Von Luger's disgust of the Gestapo is shown when Big X is returned from custody. I have rendered a sloppy salute to a particular officer to make a point.
stiiggy