This is basically the sister thread to my SF thread. This is not about accidents like seeing contrails in the classic era, but about basically misleading or wrong applications of tropes, characterization, or flat out repeating wrongs from previous movies:
Anyway, here are a couple of proposals by me, today for WW2, but it's not limited to WW2, and please do add your own.
1. Most Germans in WW2 have an MP-40 or similar, everyone else has rifles.
Actually Germany only managed to produce slightly over a million SMGs total during WW2. And I mean ALL SMGs combined, from MP-36 to MP-41.
By contrast, the UK produced over 4 million Sten guns alone. The Soviets produced some 2 millions PPS, 6 million PPSh, and about 100,000 PPD. The Soviet SMG production alone dwarfs the German SMG production by almost an order of magnitude.
Plus, even if one wants to show that they're the "elite" SS units, an MP-41 would be a far better visual indicator.
2. Fighters are supposed to stay in formation with the bombers, and only yahoos break off to chalk up kills. (See, "Red Tails".)
Err, no. Just no. Fighters were SUPPOSED to chase off the enemy, and often even sweep ahead of the bombers to bait the enemy fighters into a fight.
3. The soviets had gazillions of anti-tank rifles. (Mostly Soviet movies, but also appears in arguments about stuff like the Panther skirts.)
Actually, the Soviets overestimated the thickness of the Pz-III and IV armour before the war, resulting in producing lots of very powerful AT guns to counter them. I mean, they even skipped the 37mm/2pdr that everyone else was using and went straight for long barreled 45mm and 76mm. The production of AT rifles was merely in the tens of thousands during the whole war, and was DWARFED by the production of AT guns and SPAT vehicles.
4. There is only either saturation FLAK, or none (and you can just fly straight to your objective.)
Actually, for most of the trip you had to deal with lone batteries (as in 3-4 AA guns total), guided by a rather sophisticated (for the time) fire director. They were partially countered by changing the direction all the time, in shorter intervals than it took for an 88mm projectile to reach your height.
Saturation FLAK, as in, putting as many explosions as possible in the air was expensive, and only happened over cities or similar strategic objectives. There was also no known counter, other than flying in straight line to get the hell out of the saturated area. Which typically also tends to mean that you would NOT turn around as soon as you dropped the bombs, but accelerate ahead to get out of the saturation FLAK zone.
5. Every German tank is a Tiger or Panther.
Actually the Americans only encountered Tigers a handful of times. The Brits had to deal with a bit more of them, but they remained a minority.
Actually the Pz-III and IV were still the most tanks the Germans had, with some recon Pz-II thrown into the mix for good measure.
6. You could immediately slide down the stairs from a sub conning tower and start diving, if you saw anything dangerous. (E.g., "Das Boot".)
While it makes it more dramatic in movies, that wasn't even possible until very late in the war, when they put the radio aerial on the periscope. You had to take down the aerial first (two if radar passive detection was used), and carry it down the stairs first. You couldn't even close the hatch before doing that, because the cables to the aerial would be going out through the hatch.
7. Every submarine attack would be done with torpedoes, even sinking a derelict tanker left behind by the convoy. (E.g., "Das Boot.")
Actually the torpedoes were few and expensive. There's a reason they had an artillery piece on the deck, in front of the conning tower. If you ran into an unescorted ship, you'd put some HE rounds into it instead. (Although running the risk that some chucklenuts put some guns on it.)
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Split from the Brilliant Light thread: 