Although some World War 2 movie prop people set up authentic German field telephone equipment during filming, the movie companies and actors fail to use them properly. As an example, two classic movies come to mind: Valkyrie and The Guns of Navarone.
In Valkyrie, Major General von Tresckow plants a bomb in Hitler’s plane. The bomb is hidden in a liquor bottle and has an atmospheric pressure fuse set to detonate when the plane reaches altitude. After the plane leaves, he sits in a truck waiting for a phone call with news about the explosion.
In the truck, a WW2 German Feldfernsprecher 33 (FF33) sits on the table. Mistake number 1, the lid on the FF33 is open. During WW2, the Germans always used the FF33 with the lid closed, indoors and outdoors. Mistake number 2, as soon as von Tresckow lifts the handset, the FF33 stops ringing. Evidently, the company that made the movie though that the FF33 operates like a civilian telephone wired to an automatic exchange… As soon as the receiver is lifted from the cradle, the phone stops ringing. There is no cradle or switch hook on the FF33. Mistake number 3, if you look closely, von Tresckow does not push the talk button in the handset. Again, the FF33 is not a civilian telephone. It is push to talk.
In The Guns of Navarone, the Allied commandos climb a cliff once they land on the island. At the top of the cliff, a lone German sentry is standing guard. After the sentry is killed, his field telephone starts making noise. The field telephone is an FF33. Mistake number 1, the lid is open. Mistake number 2, rather than ring, the FF33 emits an odd buzzing sound. Mistake number 3, when Captain Mallory lifts the handset, the buzzing stops.
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WW2 German Field Telephone Equipment 