The bulk of the picture was shot in Israel, and director Samuel Fuller remarked that it was unsettling after a scene was shot when the German soldiers and SS troops would take off their helmets and Fuller would see them wearing yarmulkes; also, between takes they would be sitting around the set in full Nazi uniform speaking Hebrew or reading the Torah.

The screams from the foxholes as the tanks roll over them seem strangely out of place, but actually happened. Samuel Fuller said, "When we were in those holes, and the tanks were rolling over us, it was our only chance to scream all the terror out and not be heard. We got it all out in those holes . . . "

Director Samuel Fuller served in World War II. He was a member of "The Big Red One" and many of the moments in this movie are based upon his own experiences.

In the "Reconstruction" documentary, Robert Carradine says that when he, Mark Hamill, Bobby Di Cicco and Kelly Ward first met Lee Marvin, Marvin didn't say anything at first. After they got into a taxi to drive out to the shooting range where they would hone their skills, Marvin finally said, "Which one of you is Carradine?" Robert Carradine answered, "I am." Marvin's response: "Fuck you, Carradine." A short time later, after they'd been working together, Carradine asked Marvin why he said that to him. Marvin replied, "Because yours was the only name I recognized."

During the UK clampdown on video nasties in the 1980s the film was briefly seized by Manchester police, who believed it to be a sex film.

Continuity

Early in the film, the German soldier who is eating some bread has a grenade sticking out of in his right boot. As he climbs the sand dune, the grenade switches to his left boot.

In the opening scene (WWI) in the bunker, the officer's shaving cream covers his lip and his chin, then his chin only, then back to his lip and his chin.

The position of Griff's hands on his rifle change while he waits in line.

When the machine gun is firing from the tank, a truck is visible and is nearby to the tank. From the view of the cross, there is no truck at the scene.

In the ambush scene, with the German hiding behind the cross, the sun is shining on the cross and the German's face. However, in the same sequence the cross casts a shadow across the field in the opposite direction to the first scene.



Factual errors

During the WW1 scene between the Sergeant and the officer in the dug-out, the Sergeant learns that the armistice had been signed 4 hours previously at 1100hrs, November 11, 1918. While talking with the officer, the sergeant is cutting a piece of red cloth in the shape of a number '1' which he says he will submit as a proposed insignia for the division. However the shoulder sleeve insignia for the 1st Division consisting of a red number "1" was already approved on 31 Oct 1918.

The German Tiger tanks in this movie are actually Israeli M51HV tanks modified from American-built M4A1 Shermans. The Israeli tank crewmen are wearing modern tanker helmets with microphones. In the one winter scene from the reconstructed version the German tank is an Israeli M50 converted from an M4 Sherman and here the tank commander is in a German uniform.

1st Infantry Division on 11th November 1918 held the line along Meuse river, near the town Mouzon (that were the final stages of Meuse-Argonne offensive, and whole war altogether); in the movie, when sergeant and his team approach an ambush by the old cross, we see that this is the spot from the first scene, the last day of the WWI. And on the memorial ("But the names are the same...") it reads "Killed in action - Soissons". Big Red One actually did fight near Soissons, but that was during the so-called Second Battle of the Marne, July to first week of August 1918.

During the combat in Africa at one point at least one German is seen wearing 'Flecktarn' pattern camouflage. Though spread through German units in Europe, particularly the SS, the pattern was never issued to members of the Afrika Korps.

The soldiers under the Sergeant's command amount to only a fire team. Sergeants command squads; corporals command fire teams.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

In the crematorium scene Griff doesn't fire 18 rounds as often thought. He fires 8, then if you listen closely, the ninth noise is a clip ejected, and the tenth is the sound of a new clip being inserted. He then fires another 8, which is correct.



Revealing mistakes

As The Sergeant stabs Schroeder, one can see the blade of his knife pressed on the latter's shirt.

When the troops land on the beach in North Africa, there are no troop transports anywhere around. The same revealing mistake is repeated on the D-Day landings.

During the battle at the cross the Sergeant is firing the tank machine gun. From the front the restricter, a metal plug with a small hole in it used to permit machine guns to fire blanks, is clearly visible in the muzzle.

When the squad is following the boy to the SP, the grenades hanging from 'Zab's' webgear have blue 'spoons', which denotes inert, training grenades.

The fire rate of MP40 submachine gun appears very high, although in reality it's quite low.



Miscellaneous

When the sergeant and his unit are in Sicily, they walk in front of a wall with the portrait of Mussolini and a sentence in big capital letters written in Italian. The writing is incorrect. It reads "Se avanzo, Se guitmi! Se indietreggio, uccidetemi! Se muoiu, vendicatemi! Mussolini". It should be "Se avanzo, Seguitemi! Se indietreggio, uccidetemi! Se muoio, vendicatemi! Mussolini". It means "If I move forward, follow me! If I move back, kill me! If I die, avenge me!"



Anachronisms

Scenes set in Sicily show a modern Italian tricolor adopted for the Republic of Italy in 1948. During the war the flag would have been the Kingdom of Italy flag with the same tricolor but a House of Savoy emblem in the white field.

When Pvt. Zab is talking to a fellow soldier who is reading the book "The Dark Deadline" they both drink from a triangular-shaped Grants whiskey bottle. Grants didn't sell triangular-shaped whiskey bottles until 1957.

In the opening scene, which takes place in November 1918, the Sergeant shows another soldier the shoulder insignia he has designed and says it represents the "1st Infantry Dvision." The 1st Division was not called the 1st Infantry Division until May 1942.

A German soldier near the gun site reads Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. That newspaper wasn't published until 1949.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When the war correspondent is filming the soldiers, you can hear the sound of the camera motor, but the hand cranks on the reels are not moving.



Crew or equipment visible

Camera shadow is visible on the backs of the American soldiers as they rush to greet the French in North Africa.



Character error

On board ship before they invade Africa, The Sergeant (Lee Marvin) tells his men to use condoms over the muzzles of their Garand M-1 rifles, to keep the salt water out of the bore and prevent corrosion, a true to life detail that came directly from the experience of WWII soldiers, like Lee Marvin, who was himself involved in dozens of such beach landings as a Marine in the Pacific. But Pvt. Griff (Mark Hamill) tears his condom on the front sight post of his muzzle, rendering its "protection" ineffective. As the squad's best marksman, that would not have any positive impact on Griff's combat readiness.