Factual error: In the very beginning as the landing craft approaches, and they then begin to disembark, no-one has their helmet chip strap secured. Then attacking the beach, and much throughout the movie, no chip straps. There is no way in real battle you would not secure your lid.
Factual error: During the final fight at Ramelle, Mellish and Henderson are displacing from their first machine position to the next; almost getting shot by a Tiger tank gun. When they run, Henderson grabs the barrel of the 1919A4 Browning Machine Gun. He had just fired a long burst, the barrel would be too hot to grab it.
Continuity mistake: Just before the church steeple gets blown up at the end, we see through the window looking down, and the front of the tank starts to turn. The sniper fires some shots and the tank starts to make the same turn again, but we can see more of it this time.
Revealing mistake: In the scene in Ramelle, the sniper is taking out Germans from the bell tower and saying "Be my strength" etc. He shoots two guys in quick succession on the corner of a wall. The "shot through the chest" effect goes off on the second actor but perpendicular to the direction of the shot.
Continuity mistake: In the first town the group comes to (the one where Caparzo is killed) they meet up with the Airborne troops and the Airborne Sergeant. They then move through the town to find the Airborne Captain. Right after they start this move the Airborne Sgt. stops and drops to a knee before moving on. When he gets up and moves, the coiled up rope (that all the Airborne carry) falls out of the left side of his back-pack. No-one notices it and they all keep moving. A couple of seconds later they show him with Miller, and the rope is back in his back-pack like it magically reappeared.
Factual error: After Miller has been shot, whilst trying to reach the detonator to blow up the bridge, we see him sat against what is supposed to be a wartime German motorcycle and sidecar. The vehicle in question is actually a Russian Ural M66 which was only produced during the 1970s.
Revealing mistake: Near the end of the movie there is a hand-to-hand combat scene which results in an American soldier being knifed in the chest while pleading for his life. You can see that it is a fake cardboard box body with his head poking out.
Factual error: During the final fight scene the German armour enters the town (a built up area) with open-topped AF V's and unbuttoned tanks. The Germans learned not to do this, greatly to their cost, at Stalingrad and other urban battles. It is very unlikely they would have risked their scarce armour in such a way without first securing the area with infantry.
Continuity mistake: In the last battle Miller, Rieben and Ryan are crouching in a ditch, waiting for the tiger tanks to come. Millers' Thompson m1a1 changes to m1928 for about 4 seconds. You can see from the sight at the back.
Continuity mistake: During the scene where Horvath and the BAR are facing down, things are getting out of control with Horvath pulling a .45 on the BAR. In the background, from among the rest of the Ranger group, alternating scenes of Jackson, the sniper, show him with his pistol either raised or holstered.
Other mistake: In the final battle where the two rangers are waiting for Upham to bring them 30cal ammo, they fire their rifles through a hole in the wall. At one point two German soldiers are seen dying from the same shot, even though they are at least five meters (about sixteen feet) apart.
Factual error: When Upham and Mellish are conversing before the fight at Ramelle, Mellish is seen placing Mk. 2 Pineapple grenades into Upham's helmet. The "spoon" on the grenades does not look to be the correct type. The ones in the film appear to be modern, folded, sheet metal painted dark green; World War II era ones are a simple piece of stamped, sheet steel. The modern ones are angular while World War II ones have a slight curve.
Factual error: In the scene where the soldiers are going through the dog tags to try and find Ryan, they all have the smaller chains attached to the tags. When taking the dog tags off a dead body, the smaller link that you see attached is broken away from the necklace around the dead body. It would be rare, if ever, that a soldier would take the time to reconnect the smaller chain. More likely, he would simply take the tag.
Continuity mistake: Ryan and Miller have a moving dialogue. In the scene Ryan talks about the time his brother was trying to have sex with a girl in the barn. While the pained Miller sits in a chair, we notice his hand which often shakes rests underneath the other. Then in a split second the left hand is on top of the other, then below.
Factual error: When Mellish and Henderson are fighting in the room in Romell, twice German Steilgrenates are thrown into the room. Both times they are picked up and thrown back and then the grenades explode. This is highly unlikely since the Steilgrenate had a short (4.5 sec) fuse and would likely have blown up in the hand of the person throwing it back. It was more common that Germans threw back American grenades which had a much longer fuse delay.
Factual error: Some of the ammunition cans were made after World War II; they have smooth sides instead of a recessed border and "low area."
Character mistake: Before the final attack in the village, we can see a wall with an advertising for Byrrh, an aperitif drink made from a blend of wines. The ad reads: "Byrrh, l'ami de l'estomach, " which basically means: "Byrrh, stomach's friend." In French, the correct spelling is "estomac." not "estomach." This is quite a big mistake since the ad and the building are three or four stories high.
Other mistake: When the squad is walking in the field with Mellish singing, they see a halftrack and take cover. Once the halftrack gets shot at by the bazooka, Miller moves to the side of the halftrack shooting the fleeing soldiers. After that, he reloads his Thompson. Then, at the beginning of the last battle, Miller reloads his Thompson for the second time. There is no explanation why he would throw away what is considered a perfectly good cartridge.
Continuity mistake: In one of the end scenes, a German goes to shoot an American, who is on his knees, at point blank range to his chest. The German is clearly pointing the rifle away from his chest by about a foot yet still hits him in the chest?
Continuity mistake: When the old Ryan is walking along the rows of graves, you see that his jacket is blowing open against his arm. It then cuts to a close-up, and the jacket is flat against his chest.
Chosen answer: There's no tree cover to the left. Whoever goes that way will likely be spotted and targeted before the others and get gunned down, but it's their best chance that one of them will make it into grenade range of the nest before they're all killed. It's not a job anyone sane would volunteer for, and the Captain is trying to get someone to volunteer so he doesn't have to potentially order TWO men to their deaths on a mission that all of them, including him, think isn't worthwhile.
Captain Defenestrator