We Were Soldiers

Continuity mistake: During the transportation of the first wave of Air Cav soldiers (the one led by Lt. Col. Moore), the number of helicopters changes from around six, to around sixteen, then back to six.

Continuity mistake: When Colonel Moore told the one soldier to tell his men to fire three rounds at anything that looks suspicious. Colonel Moore stood up and fired right away not giving the soldier any time to tell anyone.

jaws65

Continuity mistake: In the beginning where the soldiers are ambushed. One person goes to blow the trumpet (puts it in his mouth) and then the next frame has an up close shot bringing it up to his mouth again. (00:01:47)

Continuity mistake: When Galloway is helping carry Jimmy he grabs Jimmy's legs. The leg skin and muscle slides down to his ankles exposing bone due to the severity of the burned flesh. A short while later Galloway is carrying the wounded man and his legs are blackened but no bone is showing.

Continuity mistake: The blood on the face of the second-in-command of the French forces in the beginning constantly changes. First he got sprayed by blood from his commander, but even as he runs his fingers over the right side of the face its perfectly clean, the blood only covers front right side of his kepi, then as he covers from the jeep explosion its further back on the kepi. As he then gives orders to the trumpeter, the right side of the face is covered in blood, the trumpeter stands on the commanders left and sprays blood everywhere when he gets shot, but the commanders left side stays completely clean. Moments before and as he is stabbed, both his face and kepi is clean of any blood.

Factual error: Throughout the battle, the artillery rounds impact far too soon after they have been called in. While the artillery supporting 1/7 CAV at Ia Drang did have some pre-planned targets, it is impossible for any gun crew to receive a fire mission, adjust the gun, and fire the round as quickly as depicted (i.e., in a matter of seconds).

Texijapi

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Several times you hear them say artillery at previously established coordinates...the guns were already dialled in to where they needed to be and all they had to do was shoot them.

Steve Kozak

More mistakes in We Were Soldiers

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: To follow your instincts and to inspire your men, by your example, you have to be with 'em. Where the metal meets the meat.

More quotes from We Were Soldiers

Trivia: After Hal Moore calls for "Broken Arrow" the shots of the A6 Intruders taking off from the aircraft carrier are taken from Flight Of The Intruder.

More trivia for We Were Soldiers

Question: The early versions of the M16 had severe problems with jamming. There may have been several causes; instructions issued that the rifle was "self-cleaning", improper ammunition design, improper magazine design (therefore in a later stage 18 rounds instead of 20 were used in the mag). It is not necessarily a mistake, certainly not by the filmmaker, but there are several writers mentioning serious casualties amongst fighting troops specifically because of jamming M16 rifles. Why does this book/film not even include a hint of that problem which surely must have existed at that time and place?

Airborne Ranger

Chosen answer: There is no definitive information on this topic, and although factually accurate, a technical problem with a weapon was probably not enough to build an entire sub-plot, and would not hold the interest of the moviegoer. There were enough casualties without having to take into consideration weapon malfunction.

Macalou

Answer: The M16's used in this battle were second generation M16A1's easily distinguished by the forward bolt assist on the right hand side of the rifle. The original M16 had no bolt assist and the jamming was caused by a different propellant that made the weapon very dirty.

stiiggy

More questions & answers from We Were Soldiers

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.