Guns of Navarone

Factual error: Miller rigs his booby trap by attaching the wires from the bomb to a pole down which a metal runner slides, so that when the runner touches the wires it completes the circuit and detonates the bomb. The trouble is, the pole is made of steel, and steel is very conductive indeed. Miller attaches the exposed end of the wire to the pole without any insulation or gap. The circuit will actually be completed when Miller attaches the battery, and he and his booby trap will be blown sky high.

Factual error: SS Hauptmann Sessler, played by George Mikell, and uniform later worn by David Niven. Hauptmannn was a rank in Wehrmacht, not SS. Insignias looks like SS-Obersturmführer or maybe SS-Hauptsturmführer, but definately not Hauptmann.

Marcus Adelswärd

Factual error: When the commandos are heading to Navarone by fishing boat, they are buzzed by the piston-engine high-wing observer plane (looks a lot like a tricycle-gear Cessna, not around in that period). As the aircraft passes it sounds like they were buzzed by a big powerful craft, like a Mustang or a Spit.

Factual error: German officers would not be present for the search of explosives and would certainly not take part in disarming them. Procedure would certainly have explosives experts do this while officers commanded the battle.

Fireball

Factual error: During the train ride scene, the train is being pulled by a modern Yugoslav railways electric locomotive, despite that it was manufactured postwar and that there were no electrified rail lines in 1940s Yugoslavia.

Factual error: During the last stand-off between Spyros and the German officer, the latter is wielding a Sten gun. Even though the Germans did capture many Stens, they were just put in storage (until after Stalingrad) since they were deemed "too primitive." So no way for that officer to get his hands on a Sten, and why would he use it in preference to a brand-new, shiny MP 40 anyway?

Factual error: Captain Sessler, the SS officer who questions the commando team, has no SS sleeve eagle on his tunic. Also, the eagle on his cap is the Heer (regular army) style rather than the regulation SS style.

Factual error: In the German office, after overpowering their captors, Mallory gives a pack of cigarettes to the wounded Major. The pack contains filtered cigarettes, which were not readily available. The only commercially made cigarettes at that time were available in Yugoslavia. England had filtered cigarettes with an attached tip that were special order. The Yugoslavian filters were made of crepe paper and not the cellulose ones on the cigarettes in the movie.

Plot hole: Maria describes in lurid detail how Anna was arrested by the Germans and tortured by being severely whipped, leaving her with gruesome scars all over her back. She also says that Anna hasn't spoken a word to anyone since she escaped from captivity. How, then, does Maria (or anyone else) know about the scars? Nobody saw them (they don't exist) and Anna obviously didn't tell anyone about them.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: She is probably able to write.

This correction is too speculative and offers no in-film evidence or further proof.

Bishop73

Anna was a school teacher.

Wasn't she a school teacher? So probably could write.

If she "wrote" about the scars wouldn't someone want to see them, perhaps get her to a doctor? Making up silly, deux ex machina explanations for film mistakes does not invalidate them.

Your assuming a lot like when the Germans release here. She could have "recovered" and had a fit anytime anyone touched her.

As was noted above, making up silly, deux ex machina explanations for film mistakes does not invalidate them. You cannot 'recover' from scars. It is ridiculous to think that nobody ever thought to get Anna to a doctor for treatment.

More mistakes in Guns of Navarone

Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby raaf: First, you've got that bloody old fortress on top of that bloody cliff. Then you've got the bloody cliff overhang. You can't even see the bloody cave, let alone the bloody guns. And anyway, we haven't got a bloody bomb big enough to smash that bloody rock. And that's the bloody truth, sir.

More quotes from Guns of Navarone

Trivia: Anthony Quinn was so taken with Rhodes, the location for the movie, that he decided to buy some land there. Particularly a bay formerly known as Vagies Bay, which is still called Anthony Quinn Bay.

More trivia for Guns of Navarone

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