Hogan's Heroes

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

67 mistakes in season 3 - chronological order

(22 votes)

The Ultimate Weapon - S3-E28

Factual error: Towards the end of the episode, Burkhalter gets a call from a General Seidenbaum. Anybody with such a "Jewish" name would have been weeded out of the officer corps by the Nazis. In fact, anyone of that name would have had great trouble even getting his Ariernachweis (proof or aryan ancestry), and without carrying a copy with him he could not have opened a charge account at the local bakery. Most people with such names (those who managed to pass the Nazi board of racial review) had them changed to more "German" ones like Müller or Schmidt to escape the constant bullying. A little bit of background on "jewish" names: At some time during the medieval period, Jews in the German Reich who traditionally didn't use last names were forced to have them. Many selected names like Gruenbaum, Cornfield, etc. Which over time were perceived as "typical Jewish" names, even though many bearers weren't even of Jewish faith any more.

Doc

Monkey Business - S3-E29

Factual error: In this episode, the Royal Navy submarine that acts as a radio relay for Hogan's men is hunted by a destroyer. Like in most such Hollywood scenes, depth charges are seen exploding right next to the submarine, which just shrugs the blasts off. In reality, any depth charge that went off closer than 100 meters was instantly deadly to a submerged sub.

Doc

Monkey Business - S3-E29

Factual error: In several episodes, Hogan's men communicate by radio with a British submarine, and the dialog hints that the sub is submerged at the time. During the WWII era, submarines could not communicate by radio without surfacing first. In most episodes one might argue that the sub could be running shallow with a mast up, which would perhaps be within the technical possibilities of the era, but in this episode, the sub is talking to Hogan's men while under attack by a destroyer. This pretty much rules out running at periscope depth, because ramming was regularly-used tactic for killing subs that were in the process of diving or surfacing. To avoid confusion: Nowadays, subs can communicate while running several hundred feet deep by using VLF and ELF. However, these are definitely not capable of transmitting voice, but are text-only.

Doc

Drums Along the Dusseldorf - S3-E30

Factual error: All through this episode, characters keep referring to the river the bridge *du jour* spans as "The Düsseldorf" or "Düsseldorf river." The city of Düsseldorf is situated on the river Rhine - there is no "Düsseldorf river." It's a well known fact that the producers were hardly geography whizzes, but not knowing the Rhine is bad even by their standards. Curiously enough, there kinda is a "Düsseldorf river" called the Düssel, and it meets the Rhine there. The Düssel however is a small streamlet that a well-trained man could probably jump over - so the mistake is still a valid one.

Doc

Drums Along the Dusseldorf - S3-E30

Continuity mistake: At the end, when Hogan and Schultz are admiring the Indian headband sent by Carter, Klink comes walking out behind them. As he stands in the door, you see Klink fold his hands in front of his waist as Hogan is talking. After Klink starts to talk, the camera cuts to a close up of him and he suddenly has his riding crop under his arm.

Movie Nut

More quotes from Hogan's Heroes

Trivia: During WW2 Robert Clary, who played Louis LeBeau, had been imprisoned at Drancy internment camp in France, and at Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp where he was tattooed with the number "A5714." He was the youngest of 14 children. Twelve members of his immediate family were sent to Auschwitz, and perished.

Super Grover

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The Antique - S5-E12

Question: When Hogan gives Klink $100 for the cuckoo clock, the bill handed over was a crisp American $100 note. How did Hogan get an American $100 note? At best, in this time period, he should only have Reich Marks. And how would he have 333 Marks, 33 pfennigs? Unless he had a side businesses going, this seems unlikely.

Movie Nut

Answer: It's a comedy, not a documentary.

stiiggy

Perhaps it was counterfeit. There are numerous episodes where they deal in counterfeit monies.

Chosen answer: Hogan and his men are running a spy ring out of the camp, they have access to supplies from outside. (In another episode, they have to convince a defecting German officer that they're legitimately working for the Allies by arranging a specific personal ad to run in the next day's London Times, so a new $100 bill is not beyond their capabilities).

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Werner Klemperer fled Nazi Germany as a teenager. His two conditions for taking the role of Colonel Klink were that he had to be a bumbling idiot and he always had to lose. It would then be a character mistake that if Hogan offers him a fresh American hundred-dollar bill, he's not going to ask questions, he's going to take the deal. The fact that he's Commandant and could just confiscate the money from Hogan would never occur to him because, again, he's a bumbling idiot who, by the actor's contract, always has to lose.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Rightfully, Hogan should not have any money at all. POW were stripped of all cash they carried. The intention was to make escape more difficult. The fact that Hogan has what is the equivalent of a third of the price of a KdF-Wagen (You'd probably know it as a Volkswagen Beetle) in cash should rightfully make Klink more than a litle suspicious.

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