Question: There is an entry stating that military members can't just choose which orders to obey. Is that actually true?
Answer: Unless the order contravenes a standing order issued by the higher ups, or violates a treaty the government signed (the Geneva Convention, for example) then it has to be followed. Sometimes soldiers will disobey an illogical order and it turns out OK - but they will have to justify it at tribunal at some point if necessary.
Answer: Of course it is. When you join the military you get given orders and you follow them. You don't get to pick and choose to follow only the ones you like or the ones you agree with. The military is basically "do as you are told"
Question: When several soldiers surrender, why was the first one shot? I'm not referring to the end, I'm referring to the opening battle, when several surrendered, and only the first was shot.
Answer: In the D-Day scene at the beginning of the battle, when the Germans surrender after a brief trench battle, one gets shot. I think this is because one soldier was still very tense and shot the German because he didn't see his hands up in the fight or flight response he was having.
Question: Rather than sending an army into enemy territory to save a single soldier, wouldn't it have made more sense to put the word out among troops to try find Private Ryan as they found each other? It would have been awfully risky to send an army unit into enemy territory to save a single soldier.
Answer: It's only a squad of soldiers, definitely not an entire army. Word wouldn't spread fast around France during the early stages of an invasion. All original communications were cut and the infrastructure is hell, they had to use pigeons to contact England for a reason. If you want to send word out or find someone you have to send men.
It wouldn't have just been dangerous to a squad into enemy territory to save one man at the time which the movie takes place. They would have had to spend what could be many days to trying to locate him since they didn't know what Ryan looked like.
Question: What exactly killed Sergeant Horvath? I reviewed the scene carefully but I couldn't tell what exactly pierced his back - was it a piece of shrapnel, or did he get shot by one of the Wehrmacht German troops?
Answer: Horvath was shot in the back by attacking Germans trying to seize control of the bridge. He was shot a total of 3 times. Once when he went toe to toe with the German. His German attacker's gun was jammed/empty of ammo. The German throws his helmet, so does he, beats the German to a pistol draw and gets shot in the side, then throws his .45 cal at other Germans. Another after he fired a bazooka round and Miller is yelling to get off the bridge - he starts falling back and gets hit in the leg. The 3rd was in the back, right after the 2nd when he stood back up.
Question: What kind of explosive were they putting in the socks when making the sticky bomb?
Answer: They say they have enough Composition-B (RDX and TNT) to blow the bridge twice, but when they take the explosives to put into the socks the crates say TNT. So its either Comp-B or TNT that they use.
Question: Could you really use tracer rounds in the type of machine guns the Germans were firing during the Normandy scene at the beginning of the movie, as seems to be the case?
Answer: Absolutely. There were tracer rounds in ammo belts for the MG42.
Could you fire incendiary rounds as well?
Yes, an MG42 can fire incendiary rounds.
Answer: Article 90, 91, and 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it a crime to willfully disobey a superior commissioned officer, superior non-commissioned office, warrant officer's legal order or fail to obey any general lawful order. Punishment for not following lawful orders during wartime can include death. The keyword being "lawful" orders. Military personnel do not have to obey unlawful orders. Military courts still hold individuals responsible for their actions, even if following orders. Thus, following unlawful orders can result in court discipline and the phrase "I was just following orders" has never worked. An unlawful order is the only time a military personnel can choose not to follow an order. Of course, just like in civilian life, they can always choose what orders to follow and not to follow and simply risk the consequences of a court martial.
Bishop73