Factual error: The tank used in the episode is not a tiger tank but an American M7.
Kommandant of the Year - S1-E3
Factual error: A sharp brass cone has been put over the spike on Klink's Pickelhaube, so Hogan can pin the page torn from the Geneva Convention onto it. The real spike of a Pickelhaube has concave slopes, and it isn't pointy enough to pin a piece of paper onto it.
Factual error: Hogan mentions a store that offers "thirty percent off on T-shirts." T-shirts were mostly unknown in Germany during the 3rd Reich, and didn't see widespread use before the 1960s. Before that, the traditional Unterhemd, known in America as tank top or wife beater, was worn almost exclusively.
Anchors Aweigh, Men of Stalag 13 - S1-E16
Factual error: When Shultz is standing at the top of the ramp with a crate marked "hors d'oeuvres", talking with Carter and Lebeau, if you look to the right of Shultz's head (camera's left) you can see the Desilu Studios water tower.
Factual error: The guard outside Klink's office and the two Gestapo soldiers guarding the gold truck have MP38/40 and a Thompson submachine gun, but carry rifle ammunition pouches instead of the long ammo pouches that carried the 30-round magazines used by the MP38/40.
Factual error: When the men are lined up to take the strongboxes of gold to switch with bricks, each man in line easily hefts and tosses them to the next man. Gold bricks weigh over 27.5 pounds (12.4kg) apiece. If there 10 bricks per box (going by the size of the boxes), then that comes to 275 pounds per box, plus the weight of the box, which these guys are tossing around without a problem.
The Great Impersonation - S1-E21
Factual error: When the three captured heroes stand before the Gestapo officer, he sweeps three sets of US identification tags into his hand. The names and uniforms suggest that the three captured personnel are from three different armies. Identification tags differ greatly between armies, all wearing US-style with their usual uniforms they would be worse off than wearing none at all. The Geneva convention would allow for them to be shot on the spot as spies under these circumstances since they initiated combat (blew something up) wearing false uniforms. (00:03:20)
I Look Better in Basic Black - S1-E28
Factual error: When the SS guard is calling Sergeant Shultz after seeing the burning fuse, he addresses Shultz as "Sergeant", rather than the proper German word for Shultz's rank, "Feldwebel."
Suggested correction: "Hogan's Heroes" is an American television show produced for an English speaking audience. The whole show is shot in English! Did you expect Schultz and Klink to speak German and LeBeau to speak French?
I have seen MANY instances in the show where German characters are speaking actual German phrases (many quite accurately, by the way) and ranks of fellow German soldiers. When the German characters are addressing English-speaking characters in this American-made show, you do expect them to speak German-accented English, however, when German-speaking characters speak German to each other, one expects them to use the proper address and vernacular Germans would use and not mix in other languages. In this case, the SS guard did not know a lick of English when he was questioning some prisoners who were out their barracks, but addresses Sergeant Schultz as "Sergeant" rather than "Feldwebel." Furthermore, why aren't little things like buckets of water used in the show are labeled, "Water" rather than the German "Wasser"? Why isn't the list of rules tacked onto the barracks say "Forbidden" rather than "Verboten"?
The point is that when German characters are speaking to each other, it is assumed by the audience that they are speaking German and we are hearing an English translation for our convenience. In the world of the show, they are using the German term, but we hear the English equivalent.
I Look Better in Basic Black - S1-E28
Factual error: The American women the SS brings into camp claim to be entertainers having performed for troops. The series is allegedly set in 1942. Before June 6th, 1944 there were no allied troop concentrations in central Europe, certainly not in Germany, and very certainly none of a size and security rating the USO (or probably rather its predecessor organization, since the USO was founded in 1941 and would not have been fully operational yet) would send a troupe of female entertainers to.
Hogan Gives a Birthday Party - S2-E1
Factual error: When the crew in the plane gets ready to drop the bombs on the refinery, Hogan (in the pilot seat) tells Carter (who is looking through the bomb sight) exactly when to push the button. In fact, the pilot of a WW2 bomber had no way of even knowing when exactly to release the bombs - it was the job of the bombardier, looking through his targeting optics, to know that. Carter at the bomb sight should be telling Hogan how exactly to steer to get the bombs onto the target.
The Rise and Fall of Sergeant Schultz - S2-E6
Factual error: General Kamler awards Schultz what he calls "The Iron Cross Fourth Grade." There never was a version of the Iron cross called that. The Iron cross came in two ranks, called 2nd class ("zweiter Klasse") and 1st class ("erster Klasse"). The ranks higher than that were called the Knight's Cross ("Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes") and were never pinned to the chest but worn around the neck.
Factual error: In the very end, Klink comes up to the boys. As he stands beside Hogan, the Desilu Studios Water Tower is present behind them.
Factual error: The German agent pretending to be an American pilot is wearing a one piece flying suit from the 1960's when he is questioned by Hogan and the British escapee in the barracks. It even has the US Air Force logo on the sleeve, which didn't come into use until 1947, after the war.
The Great Brinksmeyer Robbery - S2-E18
Factual error: In the restaurant in Hammelburg, where Schultz discovers Hogan and Newkirk, there's an advertisement for "Brauerei der Jager, Stadt Wien." (Wien = Vienna) Vienna and Hammelburg are more than 500km apart, and if Hammelburg were near Düsseldorf, where the series puts it, it would be more like 700km. That's a bit far away for a brewery to advertise in the pre-globalisation era.
Praise the Fuhrer and Pass the Ammunition - S2-E19
Factual error: In the ammunition dump, a sign saying "Warnung Hoche Sprenggefahr" can be seen. That is not correct German. First, and foremost, it must be "hohe" and not "hoche", the latter form does not exist. Secondly, the word "Sprenggefahr", while not formally wrong, was never used in German. Depending on what the meaning of the sign is supposed to be, it must either be "Explosionsgefahr", if the overall danger of an explosion is meant, or if the property of the ammunition of being explosive is meant, it should be "Hochexplosiv." If the general presence of explosive material is being warned of, "Explosivstoffe" or "Hochexplosives Material" would be possible.
Factual error: In this episode, the HofBrau (which should correctly be written "Hofbräu") is displaying a big red neon sign above its door. From 1939 on, air raid regulations throughout Germany strictly prohibited any unnecessary display of light at night. Any light visible from more than 500m away was considered a breach of air raid regulations.
Everyone Has a Brother-in-Law - S2-E23
Factual error: Schulz repeatedly calls Klink's adjutant "Kapitän." In the German armed forces the rank Kapitän only exists in the Navy, the German equivalent for the American rank of Captain (which is obviously meant here) is Hauptmann or Stabshauptmann.
The Top Secret Top Coat - S2-E29
Factual error: In Klink's quarters, there's an (obviously fake) banana in the fruit bowl. Bananas were luxury items in Europe in the 1940s, and certainly so in war-torn Germany. The majority of Germans didn't have access to exotic fruit until the 1960s, and fake fruit of this type wasn't available then either.
Factual error: While the show always made it winter time by having snow on everything (salt piles strewn about) and icicles on all the windows, this episode has an actual date of occurrence, June 6, 1944. They help to solve the snow on the set by taping the whole episode inside. However, the windows still all have the ice formations on them. It's late spring.
Factual error: The motorcycle courier coming in wears sunglasses that are definitely newer than 1942. Sunglasses with domed, wrap-around lenses were not invented in the 1940s.
Suggested correction: I think that the tank in question is actually an M3 Lee.
It is an M-7 Priest, armed with a 105mm howitzer, not an M-3 Lee.
Scott215