Unternehmen Pferdeschwanz

This movie's PT-73 was a British-designed seventy-foot Vosper MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat) built under license in the U.S. for export to Russia. World War II ended before the boat could be sent to the Soviet Union. The boat was used for shots of the PT-73 underway at sea, while a full-scale mock-up was used for studio scenes. The real PT-73 in World War II II was a seventy-eight-foot Higgins PT boat, assigned to the U.S. Navy's MTB Squadron 13, and was placed in service on August 12, 1942. PT-73 was destroyed to prevent capture after running aground while delivering supplies to guerrillas near Lubang Island in the Philippines, on January 15, 1945.

McHale, and all officers in the film (Ensign Parker, Captain Binghampton, and Lieutenant Carpenter) wear brown low-quarter uniform dress shoes. This is incorrect, as traditionally, only naval aviators (flyers) wear brown shoes. The U.S. Navy has always differentiated between the "black-shoe" (ship and submarine officers and men) and the "brown-shoe" (naval flying officers and men) Navy(s).

Followed by McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965)