Goofs

The same overweight German soldier with his arm in a sling is seen to exit the tunnel at least five times.

The captured German vehicle in which Lt. Phil Hartman and Cpl. Grebs try a daring run toward a German-occupied farmhouse early in the movie, changes characteristics several times along the way.

In a shot from an approaching aircraft during the U.S. bombing attack the barge is clearly directly under the bridge and alongside the central pier. However, all other shots of the barge show it moored to the pier and down river from the bridge.

All of the American hand grenades are painted a solid olive drab color. Real grenades also had a narrow yellow band around the upper (fuse) section to denote that they were live fragmentation grenades, as opposed to practice types.

When Hartman's task force attacks the German farm house, a German soldier in a window is shown firing a Panzerfaust (a one-time use anti-tank weapon), which misses. Four seconds later, he fires a second Panzerfaust. Even if a second soldier was there to hand him another, four seconds is not enough time to deploy the weapon.

Throughout the movie, German soldiers are seen wearing leather marching boots, during that stage in the war it would be more correct to see them wearing the "Schurschuhe" ankle boots with gaiters.

When American tanks engage and destroy the anti-aircraft battery overlooking the bridge, explosions occur in and behind the battery at locations where a direct-fire tank round could never have reached due to the flat trajectory of the tank guns and the tanks being below the battery.

The blond SS man wears an arm band with the word "Germania", indicating his regiment. The SS Regiment "Germania" was on the Eastern Front in 1945, not the west.

Perhaps he was transferred from the Eastern Front and kept his arm band out of pride in his previous unit.

The superstructure of the real Ludendorff Bridge remained intact after the explosion. As depicted in the film, the German demolition charges were placed only on critical points on and under the roadbed and railroad tracks. The damage was mostly to girders connecting the road bed to the superstructure. There are many photos of the Ludendorff Bridge in American hands after the battle with the superstructure largely undamaged.

Throughout the film, the American soldiers refer to the city of Meckenheim as "Stadt Meckenheim". However, the word "Stadt" is not part of the name of the city, it just means city in German.

There are many cities that get "city" attached, in many languages: Kansas City, Mexico City, New York City, Panama City, etc. Quite ordinary.

As the bridge comes under fire, there is a German train approaching the bridge from one side as American tanks approach from the other. The American tanks open fire on the train and it explodes. However, the train then comes to an immediate halt. Real trains have an immense amount of momentum and require a considerable distance to come to a complete stop. The train we see explode is undoubtedly a scale model, but it should have been allowed to continue moving forward after having been hit.

During the beginning scenes, the train is approaching the Obercassel Bridge in a gentle right curve. Then the M24 Chaffee tanks and their support running for the Bridge are seen. Then the error appears: The armor is seen on the river road, but the negative is reversed. Names on the tanks are reversed, the truck's steering wheel is on the right side, and the train is now making a gentle *left* curve onto the bridge. Reversal ends as the sequence ends with the explosion/destruction of the bridge.

During several quiet night scenes near the end of the movie, crickets can be clearly heard. However, in Germany in the month of March, the weather would still be too cold for crickets to be present.

When a line of American tanks are shelling German positions, none of the tanks' cannon barrels recoil when they are fired.

When the German firing squad is shooting a victim near a checkpoint, none of the bullets are seen to impact the wall behind the victim. In actuality, all the bullets would have passed through the victim and made noticeable craters in the wall.

When Maj. Paul Krueger is executed by the firing squad, there are no bullet holes or blood on him.

When the American bombers are attacking the bridge, no bombs are seen dropping from the planes. The bomb bay doors are open but no bombs can be seen.

When Maj. Paul Krueger is hit by the bullets fired by the firing squad his eyes are closed. When he hits the ground, he opens his eyes.

Maj. Paul Krüger (Robert Vaughn) uses McArthur-style sunglasses, not used by Germans at that time.

In the battle at the west ridge, a German gun crew is shown firing an MG42 but its making the traditional *rata-tata-tat* sound rather than the buzz saw/ripping-cloth sound distinctive to the MG42's very high rate of fire.

When the American troops are moving through a narrow street, behind a tank a soldier is firing his machine gun, but no sound can be heard.

Major Krüger addresses Becker as a Sergeant. But his shoulder insignia indicate that he is just an Unteroffizier, a rank similar to a Corporal.

As he is imparting new orders to Capt. Colt, Maj. Barnes asks him, "You don't want to let the Russkies beat us to Berlin, do you?" Berlin was explicitly in the Russian zone of operations, and American forces were never assigned to take it.