Continuity mistake: During the inspection of arms, when Frank stands in front of the second soldier in line, the soldier's left collar is flipped up and his right collar is folded underneath his shirt in the shots facing him, but in shots facing Frank the soldier's entire collar is properly positioned.
Continuity mistake: As Hawkeye walks past the swamp after leaving Trapper, you can see the still is missing.
Continuity mistake: The length of the chewing gum hanging from Henry's hat differs between the front and rear shots. (00:03:10)
Factual error: When Frank sits down on Margaret's bed, he pulls a single metal star out of his butt. Kelly being a Lt. Gen, he should have (and has, as can be seen in other scenes) a single bar of three interconnected stars, not three single ones. Therefore Frank shouldn't be able to find a solitary star in Margaret's bed. (00:19:00)
Factual error: Radar gives the location of the battle as Longitude 70, Latitude 27. This means the Korean war has spread to India. (00:21:00)
Continuity mistake: After Iron Guts Kelly dies in Margaret's tent, Frank Burns visits Margaret, suspecting something. Frank asks why there is a general's star on her cot. In the ensuing 'back and forth' dialogue, Margaret's hair goes (in close ups) from nicely combed, to frazzled, back to nicely combed again (and in a different light).
Continuity mistake: In the episode Iron Guts Kelly, Col. Wardman first calls Iron Gut Kelly a Lt. General, then a Maj. General then he goes back to Lt. General.
Springtime - S3-E6
Factual error: Radar mentions to a nurse he's smitten with that the movie that night is "Firstborn of Godzilla." Godzilla (the movie, not the monster) wasn't released until 1954. (00:15:10)
Springtime - S3-E6
Other mistake: While Radar is measuring the camp, he says that last year they had 2,986 square feet, but this year they have 2,863 square feet. The square root of 2,863 is about 53.5, so unless the camp is 53 feet by 53 feet (!) his numbers are WAY off. (00:16:15)
Factual error: Another premature mention of Godzilla when Col. Blake announces that night's movie, "Godzilla and the Bobby Soxer". (00:01:57)
Revealing mistake: As Hawkeye calls for quiet in the officers' club, Henry pulls the tonearm off the record player, it comes away trailing a long wire behind it. Why would it even have a long wire to trail? After all, wire costs money too. It's not like the tonearm is designed to come off and be used remotely. My guess is: they lengthened it, so the shot could be taken several times without repairing the record player every time. Now, WHY they would do it that way and not simply use a dud record player is beyond me. (00:20:55)
Visible crew/equipment: When Margaret's in her tent reading just as Hawkeye walks in to give her the physical, the chalk T-mark can be seen on the floor.
Audio problem: As Trapper opens the door to the swamp and the football flies in, a splash is heard as if it hit a tub of water, followed by the sound of a high, fluted vessel filling with water. Neither of those sounds make sense in this case. (00:07:00)
Visible crew/equipment: After the scene in the x-ray room with Henry asking Hawkeye and Trapper to "read between the lines" in the letter from Henry's wife, when it cuts to Radar on the phone the shadow of the boom mic can be seen on the wall at the top left side of the screen, right before it's pulled up.
Factual error: Radar finds a rabbi on board USS Essex, but the film shown of the Essex isn't...it's the USS Yorktown CV-10.
Continuity mistake: When Trapper turns around to ask Klinger for the status about the movie's sound, a small patch of his hat becomes wet from the roof's leaking, but in the next shot, his whole hat is instantly soaked. (00:01:55)
Revealing mistake: When the tent roof caves in and the projector shorts out in a gush of water from above, you can see that actually the projector "shorts out" before the tent roof ruptures. The crew probably didn't want to risk the pyrotechnic devices getting wet. (00:02:25)
Continuity mistake: During the scene which culminates in Frank declaring the camp dry the patches of water on his helmet change position. (00:05:50)
Factual error: During the Hawkeye and Trapper argument in the tent, Trapper seems to wearing a 70s digital LED watch which didn't exist at the time of the Korean war.
Visible crew/equipment: When Trapper and Hawkeye are in the Swamp they start arguing, and just as Hawkeye grabs the mandolin the edge of the Swamp set can be seen at the top, left corner of the screen.
Answer: The C-42 was a military variant of the Douglas DC-2. Very few C-42's were built, so it's questionable that Potter would specifically have seen that particular model, but, given his military background, it's not entirely unreasonable that he might use the military designation even when the aircraft in question is actually a civilian DC-2.
Tailkinker ★