Factual error: There are a number of errors in the Irish rank insignia. The general wears at various times three bars (worn by a captain in 1961, when the film is set) and a modern major-general's rank badge (introduced in 1971). The junior officers wear British-style pips (not introduced by the Irish Army until 1971). The company sergeant wears the rank badge of the lower rank of company quartermaster sergeant.
Factual error: In the beginning of the movie "at the height of cold war" a map of the world is shown with the Eastern and Western Block. Germany is shown as united - in 1961 it was still split between East and West.
Factual error: The Indian commander, 'General' Raja, was actually a brigadier (India uses the British system, in which a brigadier is not a general and is not addressed as such). The rank badge he wears (two stars over crossed sword and baton) has never been used in India for any rank. The real Raja was also not a Sikh, so did not wear a turban or beard as he does in the film.
Factual error: The soldiers marching in the background at the end of the film are swinging their arms and legs randomly all over the place with no uniformity at all; no real soldier would march or be allowed to march like this.
Factual error: President Moïse Tshombe of Katanga was never a soldier and did not even pretend to be one. Nobody addressed him as 'General Tshombe' as the UN officials do throughout the film.
