When "Nails" confronts Pete with a combat photo of Pete's
bomber flying much too low during a raid, the aircraft seen in the picture is a Lockheed Hudson. Pete piloted a North American B-25 Mitchell.
When Pete convinces Randall to showoff, Ted radios Rourke to take over command of their squadron. But as Ted flies just over the treetops, Rourke (Don DeFore) is shown on the ground watching as he makes his pass.
When Nails is standing at the bar having a drink with Pete and Al, he sits his almost full glass down before handing them their orders to Scotland. In the next shot as Nails is walking towards the door, his glass is almost empty---having never taken another drink from it.
Late in the movie Dorinda (Irene Dunne) is wearing the uniform of a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP), apparently still ferrying airplanes. However, WASPs never ferried planes to overseas locations, especially combat areas such as New Guinea, which is in the Southwest Pacific. Earlier in the movie she is in England; however, she was wearing a British uniform and women regularly ferried planes there and even encountered combat conditions.
While USAAF B-25 units were deployed in North African campaign and from north Africa against Italy, none were ever assigned to the United Kingdom during World War II.
The "German fighters" that attack the B-25s are represented by either early model North American P-51 Mustangs or North American A-36 Apaches, based on the lack of nose scoops/intakes.
The gun sight that Ted (Van Johnson) uses in his P-38 is the old ring-and-bead sight. The P-38 used a reflector-type gun sight.
The Japanese bombers that the P-38s attack are actually Martin B-26 Marauders.
While Dorinda was an experienced twin engine ferry pilot, flying the P38 without training would be a huge stretch. Even for those trained in the type it was a complex machine and there were so many steps required to get into battle mode during flight that many pilots were shot down when jumped. In addition, some of the switches were difficult to flip and there was a pair of fuel levers that were completely out of sight and very difficult to turn. Regardless, as the AWA pilots were trained to fly the planes from point A to B, they clearly were aware of everything they needed to know to complete the job.
Reconnaissance planes usually don't even have loaded guns and far fewer carry a bomb load. This does not mean that such armaments would not have been available if needed, such as for the fictional carrier raid.