Best war movie factual errors of all time

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The African Queen picture

Factual error: In the scene where the German East African troops are shooting at Bogart and Hepburn, their rifles are Gewehr 88 "Commission Rifles'" with five-shot magazines. In actuality, the German East African troops, under the command of Colonel Paul Von Letow-Vorbeck, were equipped with the absolute dregs of the Kaiser's arsenal: Gewehr 71 single-shot rifles, and Gewehr 71/84 8-round tube magazine rifles whose magazines usually got fouled and had to be used as single-shot rifles anyway.

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Escape to Victory picture

Factual error: In the final football game scenes ( from about three-quarters of the way through the film or so) all the spectators are wearing 1970's clothes and have 1970's hairstyles.

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M*A*S*H picture

Factual error: When Hawkeye and Trapper arrive in Japan, as they approach the hospital in a Jeep, you can see a football field in the background. Look closely at the goalpost on the field. Instead of looking like an "H" (then in use), it is in the style used since the late 1960s: a bent single goalpost, a crossbar, and the uprights.

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Gods and Generals picture

Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, Robert E. Lee addresses Francis P. Blair as 'General' once. Blair however was never a general and in fact never held any military rank.

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The Alamo picture

Factual error: The song that Davy Crockett plays on the violin is 'The Mockingbird Quick-Step,' written in 1855, several decades after the events of this movie (and later used by the 'Three Stooges' as a theme song.).

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The Way Ahead picture

Factual error: At the beginning of the film, just after the credits, there is a definition of the word 'army'. It is claimed to be from the 'Encyclopaedia Brittanica', an obvious spelling error - "Brittanica" should have one T and 2 N's.

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Alexander picture

Factual error: The backdrop to the party scene in India shows a large building with glass windows. The Romans were the first to use glass windows some 300 years later.

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The Last Legion picture

Factual error: Hadrian's Wall is facing the wrong direction. The Wall was built to defend Britannia from the Picts in Scotland; therefore, its front should face north. However, as the Romans approach it from the south, they are greeted by the sheer face of the Wall.

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Captain Horatio Hornblower picture

Factual error: All of the Lydia's lieutenants are wearing epauletes on their left shoulders.only lieutenant commanders were permitted to wear one on the left shoulder, while the right shoulder was reserved for captains of less than 3 years' seniority.

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Hanover Street picture

Factual error: The lid Halloran removes before the jump out of the plane is much too small. They wouldn't have made it through the opening with their parachutes strapped on. (01:05:45)

NancyFelix

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Biggles picture

Factual error: The aircraft are definitely post-WWI. Biggles is flying a De Havilland Tiger Moth, which appeared in 1930s. The German fighter is probably the PT-23 Stearman.

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Spartacus picture

Factual error: The weaponry of the Romans and their use is wrong (as they are in all Hollywood movies playing in the Ancient Mediterranean that I know): Instead of one spear, each legionary would carry two weighted javelins, called Pila (singular: Pilum), which had a long narrow iron head. The purpose of these were to throw them at the enemy before melee; if they did not kill their targets, the pila would get stuck in their shields. The head shaft would bend, making the pila useless for 'return' to their original owners, and with the added weight of the javelin, the enemies' shields were rendered useless as well. Following this, the Romans attacked with short swords (the Gladii; singular Gladius).

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Big Red One picture

Factual error: During all the major battle scenes involving tanks the Germans are using post-WWII tanks. The turret looks a bit like the M10 Wolverine with a top cover.

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Warbirds picture

Factual error: The dying colonel opens the bomb bay doors, and drops the "little man" atomic weapon on the island, destroying the flying reptiles. In fact, the bomb and the fusing assemblies were transported to Tinian by separate methods. No one in his right mind would have loaded a FUSED atomic bomb into a B-29 to transport it to Tinian.

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Fahrenheit 9/11 picture

Factual error: A headline from the Pantagraph (an Illinois newspaper) dated 19 December 2001, is shown in big letters to read, "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election." In fact, no edition of the Pentagraph has ever featured an article that claimed this. The only time those words appeared in that newspaper was in small print over a letter to the editor dated 5 December 2001.

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Rules of Engagement picture

Factual error: During the "Vietnam Scene" at the beginning you see a very long take of an AK47 muzzle appearing slowly from a bush.The problem is, it has the slopping muzzle brake of the AKM, not the plain muzzle of an AK47. The AKM was not in service in 1968, and was never supplied to North Vietnam anyway.

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Apocalypse Now picture

Factual error: Captain Willard recalls back to lunch at General Corman's and we hear Harrison Ford's voice say as he points to a map, "Now he's crossed into Cambodia". The town he's pointing at (Ban Me Thout) and the one above it are in the Central Highlands in the middle of Vietnam and not crossover points anywhere near Cambodia. (01:18:20)

????

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Doctor Zhivago picture

Factual error: This movie is set in a part of the world that is well known for its harsh cold weather and frigid temperatures. Yet despite countless scenes of people outdoors in what is supposed to be the bitter cold of winter, you never see the vapor from anyone's breath.

HuskyMiller

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Eye in the Sky picture

Factual error: The film is set in Nairobi. It's all wrong, from the local language, not using Swahili, the car registration numbers are the wrong format, Kenya plates are like British, yellow at the back, not white. The skyline is wrong, and the drone view of the city map is wrong, the golf course is not the correct layout.

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The Wind That Shakes the Barley picture

Factual error: Midway through the film, the IRA flying column successfully ambushes a motorised British patrol. Immediately afterwards, when the column's survivors are milling about on the roadway, one IRA man is shown to be armed with a German Mauser Kar 98k bolt action rifle. This is historically incorrect, as this weapon did not go into production until after Hitler's assumption of power in the 1930's - at least thirteen years after the events depicted in the film.

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