Made up towns, a fictional battle, and a botched secret code.
Saving Private Ryan might be a top notch war movie, but when it comes to historical accuracy,
it’s further off than Private Ryan’s post.
Keep watching for the film’s worst offenses.
In any war movie, you can expect plenty of gunfire, explosions, and armored vehicles.
While the weapons and vehicles that appear in Saving Private Ryan are true to history,
director Stephen Spielberg embellished some of the uses of these instruments for the film.
For example, the film frequently ignores how hot weapon barrels become after prolonged
periods of repetitive firing.
During the D-Day invasion of the Allies, the soldiers firing MG-42s from Nazi gun nests
experienced the consequences of this issue.
Historically, the German Army strictly forbade soldiers from firing the MG-42 for too long,
instead preaching the importance of firing in shorter, controlled bursts to avoid overheating
the barrels.
If the machine guns were fired as relentlessly as we see in the film, the barrels would've
grown so hot that they would have literally melted, rendering the guns useless.
In a brief scene following the film's D-Day invasion, the US Department of War is notified
of the deaths of Private Ryan's three brothers.
When the War Department Colonel, played by Bryan Cranston, learns that Mrs. Ryan will
receive 3 telegrams with the news that her sons have been killed, you can spot a map
of the world in the background.
Looking closely, the map seems to be a Mercator projection.
Maps of this style were popular at the time, and featured images of some countries appearing
slightly larger than actuality.
During World War II, this specific sort of map was not used by the US military, who instead
relied on a map representing a very different layout of the world.
Throughout World War II, artist Richard Edes Harrison's projection of the world was favored
by the US military.
In his depiction of the globe, Harrison placed North America in the center of the map, splitting
Eurasia into two.
In doing so, Harrison wanted to convey that the entire war was centered around the United
States.
Unsurprisingly, this approach to cartography appealed to US government and military personnel
at the time.
Saving Private Ryan accurately depicts all-too-real wartime atrocities committed by both sides,
from Americans killing surrendering POWs to Nazis brutally killing wounded American soldiers.
While the movie justly presents the Nazi military as cold-blooded and merciless, there are some
details about the German army that the movie was not so accurate about.
Foremost among these mistakes was the fact that many Nazi soldiers are shown to have
shaved heads, such as the character of "Steamboat Willie."
While it might be common practice for soldiers to keep their hair short today, that was not
the case for German soldiers at the time.
Most Nazis favored a hairstyle known as the "Prussian crewcut," which featured shorter,
buzzed sides with the hair on the top of the head remaining long.
Like most hairstyles, the origins of the undercut are difficult to trace, but it's likely rooted
in World War I history.
When military barbers had to quickly and uniformly cut dozens of soldiers' hair within a limited
time span, simply shaving the back and sides saved time.
This style haircut was popular in both Europe and America at the time, and can be seen displayed
by civilians in post-WWI TV shows like Peaky Blinders and Boardwalk Empire.
The haircuts of the German army were not the only aesthetic mistake made in Saving Private
Ryan.
The appearance of American paratroopers' uniforms also diverged from historical accuracy.
In the film, paratroopers are seen wearing either brown or black jump boots as part of
their uniform.
Given the movie's setting in 1944, every paratrooper should be wearing brown jump boots, standard
issue among troopers throughout that entire decade.
Only later, in the 1950s, would black leather be used for paratrooper-issued boots.
Additionally, nearly every paratrooper that appears in the film has a white spade mark
on the side of their helmet.
While it was common for military units to have the distinct insignia of their regiment
on their helmets, the spade belonged to the 506th Infantry Regiment.
Soldiers belonging to different regiments would have had different insignia markings
on their helmets.
For example, when Matt Damon first appears as Private Ryan, he stands alongside Corporal
Henderson, a member of the 501st Infantry Regiment.
"501st!
We're coming out!'
Nevertheless, Henderson is wearing the white ace of the 506th when in reality his helmet
should have the 501st's traditional white diamond.
During the final battle at Ramelle, remaining American soldiers were miraculously saved
by the arrival of the North American P-51 Mustang fighter plane.
When the Mustang passes overhead, it has a distinct checkered pattern on its fuselage,
indicating that the plane belongs to the 78th Fighter Group.
While the 78th eventually flew P-51 Mustangs into battle, like most American Air Force
units, they flew the more commonly-used Republic P-47 Thunderbolts during the events of this
film.
The 78th officially made the conversion to the P-51s in December 1944, nearly half a
year after the D-Day invasion.
"They're tank busters sir, P-51s."
"Angels on our shoulders.”
Despite Private Ryan's observation, the P-51s were known for escorting heavy bombers on
airborne missions, not combating German tanks.
Additionally, the fighter is shown dropping heavy ordnance on the advancing Germans, even
though it clearly lacks a bomb rack or any additional rockets attached to its wings or
belly.
At the end of the battle, the fighter is shown flying towards Miller and the Americans.
Flying this direction would be against standard Air Force protocols.
American fighters would never attack an enemy from behind, as that would mean dropping ordnance
towards friendly units on the ground below, putting them at significant risk.
Instead, the planes would have flown either from behind the American forces, or perpendicular
to the bridge.
Unsurprisingly, the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan focuses nearly entirely on American
forces playing an extensive role in the invasion of Normandy.
While it is true that the US military played a vital role in capturing Omaha and Utah Beach,
the film does not show the other Allied forces who assisted in those D-Day beach landings.
Notably missing is the appearance of British military forces, who had an active role in
helping the Americans secure the Nazi-occupied beaches.
“You're talking about 1200 warships, 4000 landing crafts, 12,000 aircrafts."
In the opening moments of the battle, American soldiers are transported to the beachhead
via landing crafts known as LCVPs, or Higgins boats.
LCVPs were used by the US, Maltese, and French navies from 1942 to 1945.
They were indeed used during the beach landings at Normandy, but only in subsequent assault
waves.
In the first wave, the one Captain Miller and his company are shown landing in, British
Landing Craft Assault vehicles, also known as LCAs, were used due to their heavier bodies
and added protection.
The British ferried American forces from offshore naval vessels to the beaches, with the Royal
Navy contributing multiple transport ships to the assault.
While Saving Private Ryan does a great job portraying the horrors of the D-Day invasion,
one of the dangers it depicts wasn't nearly as much of a threat as the film would lead
you to believe.
Shortly after the US Rangers launch their first wave of assault on the Nazi-occupied
beach, many men can be see in the water.
Fatigued from seasickness and weighed down by their equipment, many real soldiers were
unable to reach the surface and sadly drowned.
The idea of a bullet piercing through the water and killing men below the surface, as
depicted in the film, is a common trick used in movies.
In real life, when a rifle-caliber bullet is shot at a body of water, it loses all lethal
momentum and will sink harmlessly after its initial impact with the water's surface.
Even high caliber bullets like the ones used by the Nazis at D-Day are not exempt from
this physical law.
According to Science ABC, the faster the bullet is traveling, the slower it will go underwater.
The opening scene of Saving Private Ryan blew viewers away in 1998 and still does today.
It drops viewers into the middle of terrifying, unending chaos and death as soldiers scramble
for their lives while being showered by bullets, blood, and bodies.
Shown in lengthy, graphic detail, Spielberg makes the viewer uncomfortable while illustrating
the extreme acts of heroism and bravery displayed by the Allies in the face of such overwhelming
defenses.
As brutal as the scene is, the real-life Omaha beach landings were even worse.
For starters, the beach the American forces land on in the film is fairly small.
In reality, there was a 200-yard distance between the shoreline and the German defenses.
In the film, Captain Miller and his company arrive as part of the first wave of American
forces on Omaha Beach, almost immediately pushing their way up the beach toward the
German lines.
In reality, the Allies weren't able to advance up that beach until the third landing group
arrived, with the assault taking hours to complete.
Of course, for the sake of brevity, it's understandable why Spielberg had to cut the landing down;
the resulting 30 minutes still offers a lengthy, largely accurate depiction of D-Day.
When deliberating on whether to send someone to find Private Ryan and withdraw him from
active service, General George C. Marshall, played by Harve Presnell recites a letter
from Abraham Lincoln.
The letter is written to a woman named Mrs. Bixby, and informs her that all five of her
sons have died in battle.
Emboldened by Lincoln's words, Marshall decides to send Miller and the remnants of his company
to find Ryan and bring him home.
"If the boys alive, we are going to send somebody to find him."
Despite Lincoln's letter being real, its contents were far from the truth.
According to The Atlantic, President Lincoln had been fed false information when he wrote
the letter.
Only two of Bixby's sons had been killed in the Civil War.
Of the remaining three, one was captured by the Confederates and later traded back to
the US army in a prisoner exchange.
The final two eventually deserted the Union army.
While the letter itself may be moving, its publication also stirred a lot of controversy
when it was originally sent.
The contents of the letter were publicized in the media, and many of Lincoln's opponents
viewed it as a shallow attempt to appear sympathetic to families who had lost loved ones to the
Civil War, rather than the gripping condolence recited by Marshall.
Several times in Saving Private Ryan, American soldiers are heard using a secret code to
identify comrades in the field.
"Thunder!"
"Flash!"
This was an authentic call sign used by the US military during the D-Day Invasion.
However, the order in which it is said was reversed in the film.
In actuality, the challenge sign was issued by a soldier saying "flash," and the all-clear
sign of a friendly ally was indicated with "thunder."
This may seem like a minor mistake at first, but its basis in historical fact is an interesting
one.
The "thuh" sound made by the letters T and H does not exist in the German language.
For this reason, even if a German soldier knew the correct response, he would have a
difficult time saying "thunder" without exposing his accent.
Additionally, the codes and responses used by the Allies changed on a daily basis.
Soldiers were expected to memorize both the code and designated response phrase, as well
as which day specific codes were scheduled to be used.
While the first act of Saving Private Ryan is largely rooted in fact, the remainder of
the film takes on a far more dramatized presentation of World War II history.
In particular, both the town of Ramelle and the epic battle that occurs there are completely
fictional.
In the film, we learn that Ryan and his fellow paratroopers have received orders to secure
the bridges along the Merderet River.
While this was indeed a historical objective of the US military following the Normandy
invasion, the task was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division under Operation Boston.
Ryan belonged to the 101st Airborne Division, and would have had a different mission.
Similarly, while the Nazi division whom the protagonists battle at the end of the movie,
the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, was an actual elite unit, their appearance in
the film runs contrary to their actual combat records.
Before D-Day, Das Reich held a strategic position in southern France to quickly combat an invasion
force on either French coast.
When the Allies landed, Das Reich attempted to move by train towards Normandy, only to
find the railways already sabotaged by French freedom fighters.
The division was forced to march north by foot, taking weeks to finally reach Normandy.
When they did arrive, they ended up battling British and Canadian forces at Caen in mid-July,
not the American forces as shown in Saving Private Ryan.
As unbelievable as it may seem, the plot of Saving Private Ryan was based on an actual
incident that took place in World War II.
During the naval battle of Guadalcanal, the U.S.S.
Juneau was sunk by Japanese torpedoes, killing nearly 700 men.
Five of these men were the Sullivan brothers, who were onboard.
This tragedy was dramatized in the 1944 film The Fighting Sullivans.
After the news of the brothers' deaths was publicized in the US, the military introduced
the Sole Survivor Policy, exempting the sole surviving member of a family from military
service if all their siblings had died in the line of duty in 1948.
However, not officially law at the time, the policy was cited as the reason why US paratrooper
Fritz Niland was ordered home in the middle of the Normandy invasion.
Niland, the inspiration for Private Ryan, had three brothers who were all reported KIA.
This tragedy resulted in Niland being ordered away from the front.
He was stationed in England and later shipped back to the United States for the remainder
of his time in the service.
Similar to Ryan, Niland initially refused to leave, though was ultimately forced to
follow his superiors' orders.
Incredibly, Fritz's older brother, Edward, had in fact survived his crash in Burma.
After being liberated from a Japanese POW camp, Edward joined Fritz in the US, reuniting
the family.
"Spielberg got it wrong, because my dad did come home."
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