Historical footage and atelier shots of warplanes action are mostly inaccurate in the movie. Most of the original footage portrays later and/or different events and thus planes and ships that were not operational during the battle or did not take part. Among the first aircraft shown taking off to defend Midway are two Army P-40 Warhawks. There were no P-40s stationed at Midway, only Marine F4F Wildcats and F2A-3 Buffalos. In the second air attack on Yorktown, the movie shows two Japanese planes hitting the aircraft carrier. There were no plane crashes into ships in this battle. In addition, Yorktown was damaged beyond saving by Japanese torpedoes fired from a submarine which had penetrated the destroyer screen rather than the air attack seen in the film. This attack also sank a nearby destroyer, , which exploded, sending more than 100 men into the sea and sinking in just four minutes. One of the most flagrant moments is Garth's collision at the very end of the movie, which is followed by the recording of a Grumman F9F Panther jet plane crash which actually occurred on in 1951. Like the USS Lexington used in filming, USS Midway is also preserved as a museum.
