Goofs

When the aviation cadets are flying out of Kelly Field, the aerial views of the North American AT-6 Texans change from unpainted aircraft to painted aircraft and then back to unpainted.

When the Y1B-17 is being pulled from the hangar at March Field, the tail code is BS 1, indicating the #1 aircraft of the 17th Bomb Group. As the plane is taxiing, #10 is painted on the nose and the tail is not shown. When it takes off, it has no number on the nose or on the tail.

The training plane in which Captain Mercer (Brian Donlevy) takes Jeff Young (Ray Milland) up for his first flight, is a North American BT-14, a basic trainer. In 1941 all flying cadets at Randolph Field started with the Boeing-Stearman PT-13, a much simpler biplane for primary training. Using a BT-14 for one's first flight is like running before learning to walk.

When Sgt. Ludlow (William Holden) jumps from the bomb bay to save Capt. Mercer (Brian Donlevy), they each grab hold of the other and start their descent. With both of their hands occupied, who pulled the rip cord? And when the parachute opened, the effective weight of Mercer would have gone from perhaps 180lbs to easily six or seven hundred pounds in a second or two due to the G-force caused by the opened chute. It's highly unlikely that the average human could maintain their grip under such loading. Something's got to give.

During the practice air raid when the P-40s attack the B-17s, there are muzzle flashes over the noses of the fighters. The P-40's guns are six Brownings mounted three in each wing. [The P-40C Tomahawk's armament consisted of two .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning AN/M2 "light-barrel" dorsal nose-mount synchronized machine guns and two .303 Browning machine guns in each wing. This was found to be inadequate, and the two nose guns were deleted in the P-40D and subsequent models and the wing armament was upgraded to six Browning M-2 .50 Cal machine guns.]

When "Sandbags" Riley (Harry Davenport) says that he reported to President Grant after a free balloon flight in 1879. Grant, although he still could be addressed as "President," was not President of the United States in 1879. He had been out of office for two years.

In the opening scene showing the bombers flying over the observation post, the angle of their outline is wrong - it should be shallower. These planes look like they are about to bank to the right. Also, the altitude given by the observer is 15,000 feet, but the planes would look a lot smaller at that altitude.