Continuity mistake: When Eddie Arnold's plane crashes (using stock footage) the aviator in the cockpit is wearing no headgear. When he is being pulled from the plane, he is wearing headgear. (01:52:13)
Factual error: In the final scene, where Fonda and Holbrook are looking over the carrier at the crowds on the dock, you can see that only the first rows of people are dressed in period clothes. The rest of the crowd are dressed as they would have been in 1976 when the film was made. Also, between them in the background is a yellow Ford Pinto.
Continuity mistake: When the American torpedo bomber attacks the first carrier, it gets shot up and flies past the carrier, crashing into the sea, at which point it becomes a single seat fighter.
Continuity mistake: During the scene when Torpedo Eight squadron is slaughtered during its attack on Nagumo's carriers, Ensign George Gay's aircraft changes appearance several times. This is due to the different snippets of wartime footage being cobbled together. When the squadron commences its attack, his plane is a Vindicator. When his plane is the last one left, it has changed into an SBD Dauntless. When Gay's plane has been hit and is diving towards the sea, it has become an Avenger. Finally, when his aircraft hits the water, it has become a Hellcat.
Factual error: When we see Midway before the Japanese attack the US flags that are flying have 50 stars on them, instead of 48 as there should have been at the time.
Other mistake: Another "Recycled Footage Segment" via Tora! Tora! Tora!: When 3 Officers on Midway come out of their bunker and say that the runway is still operational, the footage of the B-17 with the landing gear problem mentioned elsewhere is blatantly used.
Factual error: American carriers did not have angled decks until after W.W.II.
Factual error: Several shots identifying the American and Japanese carriers are actually those of late W.W.II and Korean War era Essex-class carriers.
Revealing mistake: Utility poles are visible in the scene of the Japanese aircraft carrier launching planes for the first attack on Midway.
Revealing mistake: In virtually every shot of the flight deck looking up at the fighters and bombers overhead attacking the U.S. ships, the anti-aircraft guns show the red paper caps of the blanks rather than pointed bullets.
Revealing mistake: Still another "Recycled Footage" sighting, plus a double error in one: A scene has a truck blown up during the "attack" on Midway by a Japanese Fighter Plane. Same footage (a bit cut for time) from "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and Midway is small enough that trucks of that size weren't used on the Island.
Factual error: During the Battle of the Coral Sea, an admiral orders that the TBD's (Torpedo Bomber, Douglas) be launched. The planes launched, however, are TBF's (Torpedo Bomber, Grumman), which look nothing like a TBD.
Factual error: There are numerous shots of stock footage showing planes that weren't in service at the time of Midway, notably the Corsair, which didn't see carrier service until 1944, as well as the Helldiver, the Hellcat, etc.
Factual error: The plane that Charlton Heston crashes onto the deck, at the end of the film, is a jet, not yet made during the 40's.
Continuity mistake: The same Forrestal-class carrier (60's vintage with slanted decks and full radar suites) is used as the "Hiryu" and "Soryu"...one of which is simply the same film turned left-to-right, including the backwards hull number painted on the flight deck.
Deliberate mistake: The majority of the Japanese planes were actually done-over North American AT-6 Texans and their Navy counterpart, the SNJ.
Continuity mistake: In the scene in Ed Nelson's office when Charlton Heston is asking him to investigate his son's would-be fiance's family, a report suddenly appears in Nelson's hands as the men are arguing face to face.
Character mistake: When the Japanese attack is imminent, a soldier loads the 50 caliber machine gun rounds into the box backwards, with the rounds facing the gunner.
Revealing mistake: Just before the Japanese planes were launched, you can see that the maintenance workers for the planes weren't moving. They were just statues.
Factual error: Some of the stock footage used in the battle sequences are actually just out-takes from the movie The Battle of Britain. Long shots showing dogfighting planes from that movie appear several times during Midway's combat scenes. In the torpedo attack on the Yorktown, one of the burning Japanese bombers is actually, on closer inspection, a German Heinkel, another borrowed shot from the B.O.B.
Answer: This is from Wikipedia: "Later studies by Japanese and American military historians call into question key scenes, like the dive-bombing attack that crippled the first Japanese carrier, the Akagi. In the movie, American pilots report, "They've got bombs all over their flight deck! We caught 'em flat-footed! No fighters and a deck full of bombs!" As Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully write in "Shattered Sword" (2005), aerial photography from the battle showed nearly empty decks. In addition, Japanese carriers loaded armament onto planes below the flight deck, unlike American carriers (as depicted earlier in the film). The fact that a closed hangar full of armaments was hit by bombs made damage to Akagi more devastating than if planes, torpedoes and bombs were on an open deck."
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