Goofs for
The Longest Day (1962) More at IMDbPro »

• Factual errors: A compound fracture of the ankle indicates blood and/or protruding bones, of which Vandervoort's ankle had none. It also would have been impossible to put any weight on the ankle.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Shadow of the dolly against the smoke of battle during the invasion of Omaha Beach. The direction of the shadow and the geography of the beach indicate that this scene, while set at dawn, was filmed in the afternoon.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Features LCM-8s, which weren't built until 1954.
  
  

• Anachronisms: German general Max Pemsel says: "Wir haben starke RADAR-störungen" (We have strong radar interference). The word "radar" was not used, perhaps even not known in Germany in 1944. They used a somewhat similar system, but called it "Funkmeßgeräte" (radio measuring equipment).
  
  
• Errors in geography: During the final scenes of the movie, when an American general is taken up "Omaha" beach, it's actually Juno beach, where the Canadians landed.
  
  
• Factual errors: Before Oberstleutnant Priller and Unteroffizer Wodarczyk attack the Allies there is some stock footage of weaponless BF-108 "Taifun" liason/observation aircraft. Priller and Wodarczyk flew FW-190s on that mission.
  
  
• Factual errors: Most of the Americans armed with Thompson submachine guns are wearing M1 rifle clip ammo belts instead of Thompson magazine belts.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Pvt. Schultz is lost and finds fellow soldiers across the wall from him, he crosses the wall by swinging his leg over it. When he does, it shakes.
  
  
• Factual errors: There's a typo on the caption introducing General Pemsel. It says "Befehlssab 7. Armee" where has to be "Befehlsstab 7. Armee"
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the ships are about to begin bombarding the beaches you see a group of planes fly by the camera these are Douglas Sky Raiders which did not see service until the late 1940s.
  
  
• Continuity: During the British glider assault on the bridge, the same glider lands three times.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When LTC Vandervoort uses his flashlight to illuminate his map (while having his broken ankle taped), the flashlight illuminates the map, but displays a flashlight-shaped shadow in the center of the map (indicating the stage light used to "really" illuminate the map).
  
  
• Continuity: When the coded radio messages are read out in French, the awaited second line of the poem by Verlaine, "Blesse mon coeur d'une langueur monotone" ("Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor") sets the French resistance-group in motion. They leave the hiding Allied pilots and take up rifles. The next line heard on the radio before it is shut off is "J'aime les chats siamois" ("I like Siamese cats") But when the Germans hear and are recording the identical broadcast and hear the line of poetry, the coded message after that is a message heard before the French resistance-fighters heard the poetry line: "Daphné à Monique: Il y a le feu à l'agence de voyage. Inutile de s'y rendre." ("Daphne to Monique: There is a fire at the travel agency. It is no use to get there").
  
  
• Factual errors: When the second line of the Verlaine poem is said ("Blessent mon coeur d'une langueur monotone"), the subtitle reads "Wounds [singular] my heart with a monotonous languor". It should say "Wound", plural, as the subject of the verse is the plural "sobs".
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the two men are on the rocking boat in the beginning, the straps on their helmets remain at a 90 degree angle to the car they're sitting in despite the boat's drastic rocking back on forth, showing that it was the camera, not the boat wobbling.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Lord Lovat leads his men to Pegasus Bridge, he can clearly be seen holding a Mannlicher Schoenauer Model 1903 carbine. One of the well-known eccentricities of Lord Lovat was that he always carried an old Winchester rifle in combat.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the go/no go sequence, a jet can be heard flying overhead as the naval representative is speaking.
  
  
• Factual errors: The real Ouistreham casino had been destroyed and replaced by a German bunker before the D-Day landings, rather than having a bunker built into its basement as shown. The casino seen in the film was a set built on the harbour at Port-en Bessin.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the gliders land at Pegasus Bridge, the caption on screen states "Orne River" and the bridge can be seen below. Pegasus Bridge, where Major Howard's glider landed, is on the Caen Canal, not the Orne.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During a very early scene in France, the back end of a Citroen 2CV can be seen parked at the side of the street as the German soldiers march down it.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Lovat orders the piper to play "Blue Bonnets over the Border", the song he actually plays is "Black Bear".
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Lovat"s commandos land, the piper is playing "Black Bear"; however, when we see the piper he is still trying to inflate the bagpipe using one hand.
  
  
• Factual errors: The British pathfinders land on the HQ of General Von Salmuth, commander of the 15th army. However, the pathfinders had actually landed on General Reichert's HQ (Reicher was commander of the 711 division in Normandy) and also, Von Salmuth and the 15th army were actually at the Pas De Calais.
  
  
• Factual errors: The movie shows that the German 159mm guns on Pointe du Hoc were gone when Colonel Rudder's Rangers got there. It doesn't show that the Rangers continued inland, found the guns and destroyed them.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, the helmets worn by the 2nd Rangers at Pointe-du-Hoc have no markings. In reality, Ranger helmets had an orange diamond on the back, with a number indicating battalion.
  
  
• Factual errors: According to Ryan's book, far from being deafened by the church bell, John Steele said that he didn't notice it.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the shelling at the beginning of the invasion the French farmers mirror breaks and its position shifts. In doing so a stage light is clearly seen.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the early scene between Generals Gavin and Cota, the sentry pacing in the rain outside the Quonset hut walks through a shaft of sunlight several times; also, his shadow is clearly visible.
  
  
• Continuity: When the French first attack the casino there is barbed wire, but when they run from the hotel to the casino there is none.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Brig. Gen. Teddy Roosevelt, Jr. (Henry Fonda) lands at Utah Beach he can be clearly seen completely falling in the water as he steps of the landing craft (look for Fonda holding the walking stick), and with clothes completely soaked running up the beach. As the scene continues he crouches behind a beach obstacle with other officers. As the scene cuts to a closeup, his clothing is suddenly dry.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the movie Field Marshall Rommel is giving a speech. He disappears briefly, then reappears, while the background stays the same.
  
  
• Factual errors: Although Vandervoort and Steele are shown wearing "jump" boots, as befitted their status as paratroopers, Pvt. Schultz, also a paratrooper, wears two-buckle infantry "combat" boots. This type of boot was not worn to any degree on D-Day, even by the regular infantry (they wore ankle-high "field" boots with canvas leggings), much less the paratroopers.
  
  
• Factual errors: Colin Maud and his pug, "Winston" are shown spurring "British" Soldiers into advancing up the beach. In actual fact the incident took place on the sole "Canadian" Beach, Juno - and Maud's dog was an "Alsatian" - the (then) politically correct designation for "German Shepherd".
  
  
• Factual errors: During some of the scenes they show U.S. paratroopers bailing out of British "Lancaster" bombers. They used C-47 Dakota transports exclusively.
  
  
• Factual errors: Kenneth Moore, playing beach master Commander Maud, wears four stripes of a captain rather than three of a commander.
  
  
• Continuity: When the French Commando Commanding Officer, Keiffer goes to get a tank he jumps out a window and is followed by another commando. This man is armed with a STEN Mk V (version with a wooden butt-stock and grips) when he jumps out the window, but when he runs across the street and takes cover with Keiffer before going to the bridge, he is armed with a STEN Mk II (version with steel skeleton butt-stock).
  
  
• Factual errors: The American paratroopers are incorrectly shown jumping with a jumpmaster standing in the plane and commanding them to "Go!" "Go!" one at a time. On D-Day, as on all combat jumps, the jumpmaster was always first out the door, with the rest of the paratroopers following immediately behind him, exiting the plane as fast as they could in order to land as close together as possible.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Vandervoort is first shown the caption says he is a Colonel. He is wearing the rank insignia of Lieutenant Colonel and holds the position of Battalion Commander. A Lieutenant Colonel, or lower rank if none is available, is assigned to that post.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the meeting with LtC Vandervoort, Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin is wearing branch insignia for Infantry. General officers at that time, (and until recently), did not wear branch insignia as they could command any type of unit.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the preparations for the landings, landing craft can be seen entering the water from the inside stern of a ship. These types of ship were not yet available at the time. They were carried atop assault ships at the time.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the beginning of the film and again when the bombardment takes place prior to the invasion, The French farmer is seen watching Sergeant on horseback, delivering coffee to the beach gunners. First of all it’s hard to believe the Germans would have allowed the French farmer to continue living in such close proximity to the ocean, where it would be possible to signal passing ships. And secondly, the shells detonating at such close proximity would have severely damaged if not demolished the house and the concussion would have killed the man and his wife.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When FO David Campbell is sitting, drinking a beer, we see someone standing and playing the piano in the background. The music heard is a slow rendition of the main theme of the movie, but the player is playing several notes with his right hand in the time only one note is heard in the soundtrack.
  
  
• Factual errors: The "Rupert" paratrooper dummies dropped on D-Day were not the highly elaborate and lifelike rubber dummies shown in the film. The actual dummies were fabricated from sackcloth or burlap stuffed with straw or sand and were only crude representations of a human figure. They only appeared human from a distance during the descent and were equipped with an explosive charge that burned away the cloth after landing to prevent the immediate discovery of their true nature. A total of 500 dummies, accompanied by a handful SAS troopers, were dropped at four locations. The SAS played recordings of battle noise, set off smoke grenades and used their weapons to further enhance the deception. The whole operation was code named Operation Titanic.
  
  
• Factual errors: Actors Robert Ryan and John Wayne - both in their mid 50s when the movie was made - were (and looked) some 20 and 30 years too old respectively to be portraying their real-life counterparts. Ryan's character Major General James Gavin (the youngest man to hold that rank in the U.S. Army) was only in his mid 30s at the time of D-Day, and Wayne's character Lt. Col. Ben Vandervoort was only 27.
  
  
• Factual errors: Richard Burton's character is introduced early on in the movie by an on-screen caption giving his rank as "Flight Officer". There is (and never has been) any such rank in the Royal Air Force. The correct title is "Flying Officer".
  
  
• Factual errors: All vehicles to be used in the invasion had invasion stars, which is a star in a intermittent circle.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the cliff-scaling sequence, when the Allies use grenades to kill men at a cliffside gun outpost, the men who fall from the cliff following the explosion are obviously dummies.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the American soldiers climb into the landing craft a African-American soldier can be seen in the Landing Craft; but during WWII American units were segregated.
  
  
• Anachronisms: General Gavin is wearing a Senior Parachutist badge in 1944.The Parachutist Badge was formally approved on 10 March 1941. The senior and master parachutists badges were authorized by Headquarters, Department of the Army in 1949 and were announced by Change 4, Army Regulation 600-70, dated 24 January 1950.
  
  

Related Links