Deliberate mistake: When the crew are piling into their jeep to ride out to their aircraft, the gunners ask the officers what their target is, and are disgusted to hear that it is Bremen, a tough one. The gunners should know their target already. Gunners were briefed on their target, and told what kind of fighter opposition to expect.
Memphis Belle (1990)
1 deliberate mistake - chronological order
Directed by: Michael Caton-Jones
Starring: Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, D.B. Sweeney, Tate Donovan
Factual error: Phil Lowenstein, the navigator, is hungover when boarding the Memphis Belle. It is obvious to all concerned that he was severely intoxicated the night before the mission. He'd be grounded on the spot and confined to quarters – and this happened a lot in real life.
Sgt. Virgil Hoogesteger: I know exactly what I'm gonna do.
Richard Rascal Moore: Oh God, Virg, if I have to hear one more word about that stupid restaurant.
Sgt. Virgil Hoogesteger: It's not stupid! At least I've got a plan! What are you gonna do after the war, huh?
Richard Rascal Moore: Come to your restaurant and rob it.
Trivia: Very few flyable examples of the B-17 existed at the time of the shooting of the movie. One airplane "stood in" for several by having its decals changed. The B-17G featured in the film has since undergone a meticulous restoration and now lives in Renton, Washington, USA. Though it is fully flyable, certain certification issues with the Federal Aviation Administration have kept it grounded.
Question: At the briefing it's pointed out that there's a hospital, school, etc. around the factory they're bombing, and Dennis is very adamant about getting the bombs "right in the pickle barrel" so a lot of innocent people don't get hurt. But the planes are spread out over a large area in the sky, and are also moving when the bombs are dropped, so wouldn't the bombs land over a large area and not just in the limited vicinity of the factory?
Answer: Even with the Norden bomb sight, during WW2 bombing was generally very inaccurate.
Chosen answer: It would seem that every plane's Norden bombsight would drop from different angles, etc., each designated for a common target. So, 2 planes could be higher, lower, ahead or behind the target and each hit the target, if the bombadiers had an accurate fix on the target.