The bulk of the picture was shot in Israel, and director Samuel Fuller remarked that it was unsettling after a scene was shot when the German soldiers and SS troops would take off their helmets and Fuller would see them wearing yarmulkes; also, between takes they would be sitting around the set in full Nazi uniform speaking Hebrew or reading the Torah.
Director Samuel Fuller served in World War II. He was a member of "The Big Red One" and many of the moments in this movie are based upon his own experiences.
The screams from the foxholes as the tanks roll over them seem strangely out of place, but actually happened. Samuel Fuller said, "When we were in those holes, and the tanks were rolling over us, it was our only chance to scream all the terror out and not be heard. We got it all out in those holes . . . ".
In the "Reconstruction" documentary, Robert Carradine says that when he, Mark Hamill, Bobby Di Cicco and Kelly Ward first met Lee Marvin, Marvin didn't say anything at first. After they got into a taxi to drive out to the shooting range where they would hone their skills, Marvin finally said, "Which one of you is Carradine?" Robert Carradine answered, "I am." Marvin's response: "Fuck you, Carradine." A short time later, after they'd been working together, Carradine asked Marvin why he said that to him. Marvin replied, "Because yours was the only name I recognized."
During the UK clampdown on video nasties in the 1980s the film was briefly seized by Manchester police, who believed it to be a sex film.
Samuel Fuller: as a military cameraman documenting the troops. He's the older man with the cigar asking the troops to wave at the camera.
Samuel Fuller: [Griff] A recurring character name in Fuller's films; also in Il barone dell'Arizona (1950), Quaranta pistole (1957) and La casa di bambù (1955).
Samuel Fuller: [Lemchek] A recurring character name in Fuller's films; also, uncredited, in L'urlo della battaglia (1962), Arrivano i carri armati (1951) and Corea in fiamme (1951).