The top mistakes in Sink the Bismarck http://www.moviemistakes.com/film1167 en Sat, 15 Nov 2008 06:55:12 +0000 23396 Here's a big historical mistake. The character of German Admiral Lütjens is depicted overall in this film as a wild-eyed Nazi fanatic. In real life, he was distinctly anti-Nazi, vehemently protested the anti-Semitic actions of Hitler's regime, and was himself subject to intense Nazi scrutiny as he was a quarter Jewish and his wife was half Jewish. He was one of many German naval officers who fought only for their country, not Hitler. 18647 In the film, the Bismarck destroys a British destroyer. She also shoots down one or more Swordfish torpedo aircraft. In reality, she sank only one ship (Hood) and lightly damaged a few others. No aircraft were shot down. 134278 Near the beginning a reconnaissance Spitfire overflys a Norwegian fjord, taking high altitude photos of the ship. The movie cuts to the photo lab, where a technician develops the photo. The fjord and the ship can be seen in the tray. However when the technician and his assistant remove the print and study it, you can see (through the back) that this is not the aerial shot just seen, but is a picture of the ship from sea level as viewed from another ship. 22363 The Bismarck is sighted by a British agent in southern Norway, sailing out of the Baltic into the North Sea - east to west. But the view through the agent's binoculars shows the ship sailing from right to left on the screen - which would be sailing west to east from the point of view of an observer on the Norwegian coast. 123736 The admiralty gets a priority message that two ships have been seen leaving the Baltic. The admiral and his chief of staff discuss "the Crete business", however the Bismarck sortied on 18 May, 1941, and the invasion of Crete happened two days later.