Continuity mistake: It may not be a mistake but early on in the film when Smith and company are preparing to jump from the aircraft, the jump master removes the fuselage door completely and sets it aside. The same aircraft returns at the end of the film to collect them but when Colonel Turner opens that same door to jump to his death, the door is now firmly held in place by hinges. I say it may not be a mistake because some doors lift off their hinges but I can't see why the jump master would do that mid-flight as there is a hell of a slipstream and the door could easily be lost. (00:08:08 - 02:26:49)
Other mistake: When Mary first meets Major Smith in the shed on the alpine pasture she complains that she ‘nearly froze to death in that damn plane' yet when she emerged from her hiding place on the aircraft she was only just putting her gloves on. If she was that cold then she would have had the gloves on already. (00:09:05)
Factual error: When General Rosemeyer steps out of the helicopter in the courtyard, he salutes Colonel Kramer. Colonel Kramer then returns the salute. A senior officer would never salute a more junior officer first. (00:28:25)
Character mistake: Lt Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) is wearing his War Merit Cross With Swords badge upside down on his tunic. It's supposed to be worn with the sword handles at the bottom but his are at the top. Best view of this is when he is leaning against the bar of the tavern at 00:36:03 and has just watched Major Smith get slapped by Heidi. (00:36:03)
Revealing mistake: After Smith and Schaffer are captured and while they are being transported by car, Schaffer pushes one of the guards out of the car and a struggle begins which causes the car to crash. After the crash, the body of the guard that was pushed out of the car magically appears about 50 feet behind the accident (just before the crash there was no body). (00:49:25)
Revealing mistake: After the accident with the German car crashing into the pile of snow in which the Germans were killed, Schaffer first hangs an MP40 on his shoulder and then somehow pulls up a body with only one hand. And with the changing of the grip, (from chest to legs) the 'body' stands on his own feet to give Schaffer the time and opportunity to do it properly. (00:50:10)
Suggested correction: Schaffer uses two hands to pick the body up his left hand grabs the body's right arm and his right hand grabs the body's tunic (under the body's chin).
Continuity mistake: During this sequence at the radio transmitter in Admiral Rolland's headquarters, whilst the Admiral is attempting to regain contact with Smith, Colonel Turner is seen in the background, smoking. At the beginning of the sequence, one shot shows him holding a cigarette between the fingers of his right hand. After a cut back to the Admiral, the next shot shows Turner holding the cigarette in the fingers of his left hand. (00:53:10)
Continuity mistake: When Schaffer and Smith commandeer a motorcycle and sidecar, one shot shows the MP-40 slung over Schaffer's neck and laying across his lap, while in the next shot it is slung over left shoulder and hanging down his side. (01:01:40)
Continuity mistake: When Mary Ure goes to secure the rope over the wooden beam to allow Smith and Schaffer to climb into the castle, she starts by hitting a narrow piece of wood which comes loose. The scene then momentarily cuts to the guys on the cable car. When it cuts back to Mary, the narrow piece of wood is back in place and she is knocking out the much wider piece next to it. (01:05:15)
Other mistake: When Smith and Schaffer are preparing the rope to enable them to climb into the castle, their footprints on the ‘snow' are more consistent with footprints on white sand. (01:08:35)
Continuity mistake: The camera is looking down on Smith as he climbs up the rope and there are no footprints in the snow on the roof of the cable car room below him. The camera then cuts away to different angles but when we see the same shot of Smith a few seconds later there are clear heavy foot prints in the snow on the roof. (01:09:40 - 01:10:10)
Plot hole: When Smith and Schaffer are entering the castle via a rope Mary has lowered for them, Smith stops halfway up to look through a large window. Clearly visible through this window are the faces of at least two soldiers with others in the background. It is inconceivable that not one of them would notice: A) the rope suddenly dangling outside; B) Smith's solid frame as he stares in at them; C) Schaffer scrambling up the rope after Smith; or D) the rope bouncing around while Schaffer drags it in along with the attached backpack. (01:10:00)
Character mistake: The adjutant who wakens Major Wilhelm Wilner to tell him he has a phone call from the Schloss Adler has no breast eagle on his tunic. (01:27:40)
Plot hole: Why do all the Germans abandon the cable car control room after the alarm has been sounded? If the cable car is critical for access to the castle then you would expect a hard core of SS troops to remain behind to control access and protect the machinery in the event of an attack. (01:42:55)
Continuity mistake: At Oberhausen Airfield we see the plane land in clear skies. But when the bus seconds later drives through the fence, it is cloudy and foggy. (01:50:25)
Continuity mistake: After the explosions start in the castle, three SS soldiers knock on the door of the room where the General, Colonel Kramer and the guard are lying dead on the floor. The General can be identified by the red stripe on his trousers and the guard is on the right facing away from the camera but the body in the centre that is supposed to be Colonel Kramer looks nothing like him. The face is different, and he has swept-back blond hair, whereas Kramer's was much shorter and greyer. It's a very short scene, so they probably got members of the film crew to pose on the floor rather than the actors themselves. (01:52:31)
Continuity mistake: As Mary is starting the rappel down the rope out of the castle, her MP-40 is slung on her right side with the muzzle pointing forward, but in the next shot it is slung across her back with the muzzle pointing to her left. (01:55:55)
Continuity mistake: When Smith is rapelling out of the castle and nearing the bottom, Jones/Carnaby is to the left of Smith but in the next shot he is to the right of Smith. (01:56:50)
Continuity mistake: When the team are about to jump from the cable car into the river, the view from ground level shows a bare road with no snow on it on the right and a line of trees on the left with German trucks parked next to them, but the view from the cable car shows a snow-covered road and no trucks beside the trees. (02:06:00)
Continuity mistake: When Burton and Eastwood jump from the cable car into the river, Burton jumps before Eastwood. However, the next shot downward has the Eastwood stuntman landing in the river first with the Burton stuntman still above him. We know it's Burton because of the bandaged hand. (02:06:15)
