Continuity mistake: During the Japanese bombing of Midway, you can clearly see, briefly, battleship masts in the background. Recycled footage from TORA, TORA, TORA.
Revealing mistake: Probably another instance of the recycled footage issue with this film. When the Japanese planes begin their attack on Midway Island a wide shot shows many of the Japanese planes with torpedoes attached to them. Shouldn't they all have bombs instead of torpedoes?
Revealing mistake: When the PBY is leaving Midway to begin the reconnaissance operation a long stretch of land is passing by in the background. The same stretch of land is earlier when Admiral Nimitz lands at Pearl Harbor indicating the same location was used for two different areas in the film.
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)
Revealing mistake: When Admiral Nagumo and Rear Admiral Kusaka walk onto the bridge of the Akagi for the first time while the ships are still in Hiroshima Bay look closely at the bay in the windows, it's obvious the background is a matte painting, the water isn't moving.
Visible crew/equipment: On the first torpedo attack on the Japanese carriers, US pilot George Gay is shot down. He exits the plane and swims towards a square floating object. Either he takes size 28 shoes or the actor was wearing fairly short black swim fins. They show twice very briefly above the water. Hard to see, but nobody has feet that long.
Character mistake: When the Strawberry 5 radio operator says he sees the enemy carriers he says "they're behind us" but he's looking to his left side almost as if the carriers are in front of him while the navigator in the cockpit is looking in the opposite direction.
Factual error: When the final attack by Japanese fighters on the last U.S. carrier is happening, a Japanese National flag is flying on screen.
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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