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Character mistake: According to the subtitles, when the landings begin General Marcks asks his aide to get General Pemsel at 5th Army on the phone. Pemsel was chief of staff of 7th Army, as the caption correctly states when he first appears. 5th Army was disbanded in 1939.

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Factual error: The caption says that Major Werner Pluskat is in the 352nd Coast Artillery Division. He was actually an artillery officer in the 352nd Infantry Division.

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Factual error: The ribbon of Richard Burton's Distinguished Flying Cross is on upside down. The Air Force Cross following it is the right way up. The stripes on both should point the same way, as they do on the uniform of his colleague in the mess. Nobody would be allowed to get away with a mistake like this - another officer or senior NCO would soon point it out. In addition, as a long-service veteran (his colleague says he served in the Battle of Britain) he should be wearing the ribbon of the 1939-1944 Star (as it was then), which was issued to all qualified personnel from 1943.

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Factual error: Luftwaffe pilot Josef Priller is depicted wearing the rank insignia of an oberst (colonel); he was actually an oberstleutnant (lieutenant-colonel) on D-Day, although he was later promoted to oberst. His wingman, Heinz Wodarczyk, is depicted wearing the insignia of a feldwebel (flight sergeant); he was actually an unteroffizier (corporal).

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Factual error: Group Captain Stagg is wearing several medal ribbons. In actual fact, Stagg was too young to have served in the First World War and had no military service before being commissioned into the RAF specifically to act as chief meteorologist for Operation Overlord. He would have had no ribbons at all until 1945, when he received the OBE, the US Legion of Merit and wartime service ribbons.

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Factual error: Group Captain Stagg is described by the on-screen caption as J N Stagg. He was actually J M Stagg.

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Factual error: French commando Philippe Kieffer is wearing the ribbon of the Military Cross throughout the film. He was actually awarded the MC in July 1944, a month after D-Day.

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Factual error: Beachmaster Colin Maud is correctly wearing the ribbons of the Distinguished Service Order (which he won in 1942) and the Distinguished Service Cross (which he won in 1940). However, he is not wearing the rosette on his DSC ribbon to indicate the bar he won less than a month after the original.

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Trivia: Captain Colin Maud's dog Winnie was actually a German Shepherd, but it was changed to an English Bulldog for contrast because German Major Werner Pluskat also has a German Shepherd in the film.

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Factual error: Brigadier General Norman Cota came ashore in the second wave, not the first wave as depicted. Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt was the only American general to land in the first wave, as correctly depicted.

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