There was nothing you could do/have done to save them.

[BestBuddy]

There was a group of soldiers, only one survived. We meet him and say:

1. There was nothing you could do to save them.
2. There was nothing you could have done to save them.

What's the difference between the two sentences above if there is any?

 

[Tarheel]

I don't see any practical difference between the two. (The person wasn't saved in either event.)

 

[BestBuddy]

I don't see any practical difference between the two. (The person wasn't saved in either event.)

Are both correct in accordance with the context?

If they are, I think that the main difference between them is while the first sentence states a fact, the second one implies speculation about a past event.

 

[Tarheel]

(I rewrote the scenario a bit.) A group of soldiers were ambushed. Only one survived. Speaking to the survivor, we say:

1. There was nothing you could do to save them.
2. There was nothing you could have done to save them.

It's the same situation in both cases. He survived. They didn't. He was unable to save any of his comrades.

 

[jutfrank]

You can analyse it like this:

a) There was nothing you could do.

This simply refers to the past situation. There was nothing at that time that could be done at that time. This is what you mean.

b) There is nothing you could have done.

This is slightly different. It refers to the fact that there is nothing now that can be said about what you could have done at the past time.

c) There was nothing you could have done.

It's quite unlikely, but the past tense was with the perfect infinitive have done could be used to refer to the fact that there was nothing in the past that could be said about what you could have done at a prior time in the past.

 

[emsr2d2]

There was a group of soldiers; only one survived. We meet him and say:

1. There was nothing you could do to save them.
2. There was nothing you could have done to save them.

What's the difference between the two sentences above, if there is any?

Are both correct in accordance with the context?

If they are, I think that the main difference between them is that while the first sentence states a fact, the second one implies speculation about a past event.

They both state a fact. For speculation, they would both start with something like "I don't think there was anything you ..."