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.
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.
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.
Suggested correction: The guns are firing across a strait. A strait is a "narrow passage." Since the targets must appear at a limited range, the guns only need a limited elevation angle.
Noman ★
Watch the film again. The guns are facing the open sea. There is no land visible anywhere behind the ships. If that's a strait, it's a very, very wide one.
The mission given says the guns are guarding a strait. The last shot of the six destroyers shows land behind them on the opposite side of the strait.
Noman ★
Other summaries explain that the strait is only deep enough for the ships at the place which matches the guns' range. So ships could not take advantage of further away or closer in.
Then what are the dark shapes rising out of the sea on the far side of the ships. If they are not islands, what are they?
Noman ★
Suggested correction: That the gun carriages are supposedly set on rails is not correct. In the novel template, as well as in the film, it is shown that the guns were installed on turntables. And as for their variable angles of fire - it could be due to (fictional) modifications.
Daniel4646