Saving Private Ryan was reasonably accurate in the small details, but several concessions were made in the name of filming practicality and dramatic effect. Keep in mind that Ryan can be considered a kind of alternate-reality historical fiction (I elaborate more on this below) and isn't really intended to represent real events.
I'll begin from the beginning of the film.
Captain Miller and his men are part of Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion. The mission of Company C could have gone two ways; Plan A (which is partially followed in the film) was to land at the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach, pass through Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, and attack a German position atop the cliffs of Point et Raz de la Percee. Plan B, if the first plan proved untenable, was to shift to the west (right) and climb the cliffs of Charlie sector, assaulting the German position directly.
In real life, Plan B was followed; the Rangers saw the severe beating that A/116 was taking (out of 155 men that landed, ninety were killed outright and only six escaped unwounded) and diverted. In the film (which can be though of as an alternate reality beginning at this point) Plan A was used, which accounts for the utter carnage of the beach scene.
Miller and his men are transported to the beach in American Landing Craft Mechanized, Mark 3 (which funnily enough, are crewed by British) from the USS Thomas Jefferson (APA-30) capable of carrying a tank or similar vehicle up to 60,000 pounds, or 60 men. In reality, Company C used British Landing Craft Assault from the HMS Prince Charles
| LCA | Unit | Fate |
|---|---|---|
| LCA 418 | First platoon and company commander | Wrecked after beaching |
| LCA 1038 | Second platoon |
In many films and video games, the organization and scope of the WWII US Ranger unit is incorrect; I will give a portion of it here. A US Ranger company consisted of a company headquarters, and two platoons, each with a headquarters, special weapons section, and two assault sections. Each assault section had an assault squad and a light machine gun squad. Six companies, along with a headquarters and attached medical units, made up a Battalion.
Ranger Company:
Company Headquarters:
| Quantity | Rank | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1s | Captain | Company commander |
| 1ps | First Sergeant | -- |
| 1r | Corporal | Clerk, company |
| 1r | Private First Class | Messenger |
Two Platoons, each of:
Platoon Headquarters:
| Quantity | Rank | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1s | 1st Lieutenant | Platoon leader |
| 1ps | Technical Sergeant | Platoon |
| 1r | Private First Class | Messenger |
| 1b | Private First Class | Rifleman, sniper |
Special Weapons Section: (authorized one bazooka, one 60 mm mortar, and one Boys .55 caliber antitank rifle; the rifles were never actually issued)
| Quantity | Rank | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1r | Staff Sergeant | Section leader |
| 1ap | Sergeant | Section leader, assistant |
| 2r | Private First Class | Ammunition carrier |
| 1p | Private First Class | Gunner, mortar |
| 1p | Private First Class | Gunner, mortar, assistant |
Per Platoon, Two Assault Sections, each of:
| Quantity | Rank | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1r | Sergeant | Section leader |
| Quantity | Rank | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1r | Sergeant | Squad leader |
| 4r | Private First Class | Rifleman |
| Quantity | Rank | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1r | Staff Sergeant | Squad leader |
| 2r | Private First Class | Ammunition carrier |
| 1p | Private First Class | Gunner, machine gun |
| 1p | Private First Class | Gunner, machine gun, assistant |
a: Armed with rifle antitank cal. .55 if required
b: Armed with rifle, cal. .30, M1903A4
p: Armed with pistol, cal. .45
r: Armed with rifle, cal. .30, M1
s: Armed with gun, submachine, cal. .45
Concerning the accuracy of Omaha Beach itself, I talk more about that here. The beach obstacles (Czech hedgehogs, Belgian gates, ramps, and poles with mines) were not randomly distributed as seen in the film, but were dispersed in lines. The beach is also much too short; this may have had something to do with the filming having to be done in Ireland (where they could not rip up the protected beach too much) instead of the actual Normandy beach in France. There was also no large concrete machine gun bunker at Dog Green sector, only small bunkers with antitank guns, as well as machine gun pits and trenches atop the bluffs.
The Ranger commander, a "Lt. Col. Anderson", that Miller meets with after the beach landing scene, is a fictional character, meant to represent the real commander of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder
The time between the death of Private Sean Ryan (the third brother of the Ryan family) on Omaha Beach and his mother receiving the telegram is also completely unrealistic. Casualty notifications during WWII usually took at least a month to reach their final destinations, filtering and being confirmed through various lower units until they reached officer couriers, who reported them to the field armies through punch-card name listings; the individual notifications and messages still needed to be typed by hand. The families of men killed, injured, or missing on Tarawa in late November 1943 were not informed of their loved ones' status until just before Christmas.
The character of "Brigadier General Amend" is based on the real-life Brigadier General Don Pratt, who was also killed in a glider accident on D-Day,
The sign and password ("flash" and "thunder") used when the men enter Neuville during the rainstorm are incorrect, and also reversed. The signs and passwords changed every three days after D-Day; Captan Miller gathers his squad to go find Ryan a minimum of three days after D-Day.
| Date | Sign/Password |
|---|---|
| June 6 | Flash/Thunder |
| June 7-9 | Thirsty/Victory |
| June 10-12 | Weapon/Throat |
| June 13-15 | Wool/Rabbit |
It is possible that the words were picked as a sort of shibboleth, with sounds difficult for German speakers to pronounce.
Captain Miller's squad destroys a German halftrack with a bazooka outside Ramelle; the halftrack belongs to the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, which was nowhere near Normandy in the days after D-Day, being in the process of moving north from southern France (committing several war crimes in the process) The division did not arrive in Normandy until late June 1944. The "Tiger" tank seen in Ramelle bears the insignia of the I SS Panzer Corps, which was nowhere near the American sector (engaging the British and Canadians to the east immediately after D-Day) at the time.
The P-51 Mustangs that destroy the Tiger, saving the remains of Miller's squad, don't seem to have any kind of bomb or rocket pylons under their wings, a real oddity. The use of P-51s in the ground attack role was also uncommon (in comparison to the P-38 and especially the P-47, the favorite of the US 9th Air Force) due to their liquid-cooled engines, which were more vulnerable to ground fire. The Mustangs used during filming also come from different groups ("Big Beautiful Doll" of the 78th Fighter Group, and "Old Crow" of the 357th Fighter Group) with the markings of the 78th Fighter Group Mustang being incorrect; the 78th flew P-47s at the time of D-Day, not switching to Mustangs until December 1944.