The Longest Day

Continuity mistake: Near the start, Oberst Helmuth Meyer enters, wearing a long leather coat, which is dry. A few seconds later he turns away in another shot and the back of his coat is covered with rain drops. Shortly after that, he's shown again facing the camera and his coat is lightly sprinkled with rain drops, which weren't there in the earlier front view. (00:06:20)

jean-jines@woh.rr.com

Continuity mistake: 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.

Continuity mistake: Sgt. Fuller's stripes disappear (actually one stripe is hanging from his uniform) as he is running with the detonation wire. They reappear in perfect place when he is about to detonate the first charge.

Continuity mistake: The German General Pemsel says, "Wir haben starke RADAR-storungen," which means "we have strong radar interference." In 1944, the word "radar" was not used in Germany, and quite likely not even known. The Germans used a comparable system, called "FunkmeBgerate," which basically means "radio measuring equipment."

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Suggested correction: IMDb ripoff.

This has been online since 2001 (hover over the info icon). More likely someone copied it from here and posted it to the IMDb!

Continuity mistake: When Wodarczyk and Priller bombarde the Gold-Juno Beaches, the barren beach - devoid of men, vehicles, etc., is visible in the overhead shot, just past the small strip of beach used for the shoot.

Continuity mistake: On Pointe Du Hoc when the German soldier cuts the hook loose from the wires, you see that hook falling down. In the next view only the rope comes down and the hook has vanished. [The falling hook apparently caused too much danger for the actors].

Paul Moortgat

Continuity mistake: In the scenes in the square at Ste Marie Eglise you can quite clearly see the war memorial (vaguely disguised by a tarpaulin or something).

Continuity mistake: On Omaha Beach, the engineers are able to use Bangalore Torpedoes to create large openings under a massive concrete barrier at the end of a sandy ravine. They then pack the holes with high explosives and after the dust clears, the barrier is about half as high as before, with two large sections remaining in the breach. In an immediately following scene, as troops advance through the breach, it is shown from the opposite side as a wide, flat opening, nothing like the view from the beach side.

stevewaclo

Continuity mistake: When the gliders are about to land at the Orne River Howard instructs his troops "feet up" but when they land their feet are back down.

Larry Redfield

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.

Necrothesp

More mistakes in The Longest Day

Brigadier General Norman Cota: I don't have to tell you the story. You all know it. Only two kinds of people are gonna stay on this beach: those that are already dead and those that are gonna die. Now get off your butts. You guys are the Fighting 29th.

More quotes from The Longest Day

Trivia: In the original release of the film, the scene depicting the American G.Is charging up Omaha beach has a clearly visible shadow of a camera keeping pace with the action. However in the recent colourised video release of the film, the pesky shadow has been digitally removed.

More trivia for The Longest Day

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