Factual error: The tank used in the episode is not a tiger tank but an American M7.
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.
Factual error: Hogan was an officer and would not have been put in the same POW camp as the enlisted men.
Factual error: In several episodes, the fence around the cooler is visible, and hanging on it, a sign saying "Eingang verboten" meaning "no entry." The correct German term would be "Zutritt verboten." In German, "Eingang" is the opening where you enter a building, not the act of entering one.
Suggested correction: This is wrong. Translations all over show that the sign is not only correct, but images can be found of signs with the exact same wording in real places, with the English translation right under it.
Are you trying to tell a German national how his own language works here? Zutritt is correct. Eintritt is correct. Eingang in this context was NEVER correct since the advent of modern high German. I don't know where you propose to have seen these signs, but you definitely should check your sources, mate.
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.
Factual error: While the barracks were reasonable replicas of the real POW barracks, there was one main difference. The original buildings were elevated to ensure any escape attempts could be stopped. In this series, the barracks are flush on the ground, which makes the tunnel access possible and easy.
Suggested correction: There are a plethora of actual photos freely available online of WWII German POW barracks, built either flush to the ground or on concrete slabs. This is just wrong.
I'll think it.
Factual error: Baker and Kinchloe, the radio experts of the troupe, often use Morse code to communicate by radio. When they do, they hammer the Morse key in different intervals, but always just barely tap it. Morse code is made up of "short" and "long" beeps. To produce a "long" in Morse code, you have to hold the key down three times as long as you would for a "short". A tap would be a "short" - the beeps they are sending are spaced long and short, but that's not how Morse code works.
Factual error: Burkhalter refers to Jesse Owens winning the gold medals in the Berlin Olympics, and that Hitler left the stadium every time Owens was to be presented a medal. Truth was, Hitler left the stadium when another black man won the day before, and didn't snub Owens at all. In fact, Hitler wasn't in attendance the days Owens won.
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.
Man's Best Friend Is Not His Dog - S4-E6
Factual error: When Hogan heads into Klink's flower bed to get the dog, you can see a modern steel water tank in the distance.
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: Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress, is mentioned many times, but nobody outside of Hitler's circle of friends knew about Eva at the time.
Nights in Shining Armor - S3-E8
Factual error: When the prisoners are in the workshop to "fix" the plumbing, sergeant Shultz is armed with a krag Jorgensen rifle. German soldiers were armed with the k98 mauser, not the krag.
Factual error: In the rec hall where Klink is weightlifting, there is an advertisement poster for the Grindelwald region on the wall, which is in Switzerland. The German propaganda poured a lot of money into promoting the Reich's own recreational regions through the "Kraft durch Freude" program. With the war going badly, they especially wouldn't want a "Look how beautiful Switzerland is" poster in plain view of their troops every day.
Factual error: The ambulance Major Teppel transports the prisoners in is a Dodge WC54, which is an American military ambulance, not a German one.
Will the Blue Baron Strike Again? - S4-E12
Factual error: The "Blue Baron" tells the dancer that the Kaiser gave him a certain medal. In fact, the medal he points to (and the girl fondles) is a WW2 repeat badge to the Iron Cross first class, instituted in 1939 to denote presentations of the Iron Cross first class to personnel who had already received it in WW1. He may have received the original Iron Cross from the Kaiser, but by the time he had a chance to receive that repeat badge, the Kaiser was long through handing out medals. (00:15:10)
Factual error: In many episodes, SS members of all ranks appear - the most notorious recurring character being Major Hochstetter. Curiously enough, Hochstetter couldn't have been a Major in the SS, simply because that rank didn't exist there. The SS used the SA rank system, not the Wehrmacht one. Hochstetter for example would have to be a Sturmbannführer. Colonel Feldkamp would have to be a Standartenführer. To avoid confusion: Hochstetter sometimes claims he is Gestapo, even when he's wearing an SS uniform (different mistake). However, he couldn't be a major there either - he'd have to be a Kriminalrat or Kriminaldirektor, because the Gestapo, which was in principle a civilian police organisation and wasn't half as closely integrated with the SS or the military as the series would have us believe, didn't use military ranks at all.
Factual error: In many episodes, mainly the early episodes, some German guards carry Thompson submachine guns; an American weapon.
Klink for the Defense - S6-E19
Factual error: About 8 minutes into show, Major Hochstetter asks Schultz how long Colonel Hogan (an American) has been running the camp, and Schultz says 3 years last November. This is impossible. The US didn't get into the war until December, 1941, He would have to have been captured November '42 or earlier but the war was over by November 1945.
Suggested correction: Not necessarily. Quite a few Americans served with the RAF before America declared war. The Eagle Squadron American volunteers fought at the Battle of Britain in 1940 for example.
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