Hogan's Heroes

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

16 plot holes - chronological order

(22 votes)

Show generally

Plot hole: Hogan's men have that clever device in Klink's quarters, where they turn the oven from below to reveal the trap door. That however unplugs the oven from the chimney, you can even see the smoke pouring out of the oven in some shots. Often enough, they have the oven unplugged for half a minute or more. If an oven smoked into a room that long, the whole room would fill with smoke so badly it could actually lead to smoke poisoning. If nothing else, Klink would have the oven checked. Any device that can turn a heavy cast-iron stove flawlessly like that would by definition have to be quite massive and not disassemble easily. If Klink had the oven checked, that would certainly lead to the discovery of the turning mechanism.

Doc

German Bridge Is Falling Down - S1-E7

Plot hole: We see Hogan's men empty out the gunpowder from a lot of cartridges inside the armoury. What did they do with their empties? It's not like a mound of empty cartridge cases on the ground wouldn't draw some suspicion is it? Yes, I am aware some options come to mind, e.g. putting the bullets back in and stuffing them back into the belts, but none of that is actually shown or talked about - LeBeau even chucks one cartridge over his shoulder, implying they are not very concerned about hiding their tracks.

Doc

Oil for the Lamps of Hogan - S1-E14

Plot hole: The Heroes take an empty oil drum to the depot, knowing full well that Schulz will protest, allowing them to steal a full one. However, all but their barrel have snow on it. Since it's really salt, it all falls off as they load it on the cart. With real snow, that wouldn't happen. It would be quite obvious that the barrel they are taking out is not the one they brought in.

Doc

The Great Impersonation - S1-E21

Plot hole: This episode revolves around training the reluctant, untalented Schultz to impersonate Klink to get the captured heroes back from the Gestapo. This is actually a pretty common theme, somebody, usually one of the heroes, impersonating an officer to free a prisoner. The plot gives no reason why this time, they would have to use the cowardly, untalented Schultz instead of doing it themselves.

Doc

Psychic Kommandant - S1-E25

Plot hole: Hogan's men steal the motor from the silent plane. When Klink and Burkhalter inspect the plane, Burkhalter doesn't notice the engine missing. Later Klink doesn't notice the fact that it has been put back. This is totally impossible for two reasons: Firstly, if a propeller airplane misses its motor, there is no place to mount the propeller. Secondly, when we get to see the whole plane, it becomes obvious that it has an open engine cowling which leaves the motor exposed to be cooled by the airstream. The propeller issue aside, if there is enough light to see the hand in front of your eyes, it is impossible to miss either the presence or the absence of an engine inside that kind of cowling. Add to this the fact that both Klink and Burkhalter are Luftwaffe (Air Force) officers and therefore by trade have some experience with airplanes, the whole thing becomes even more ridiculous.

Doc

Tanks for the Memory - S2-E9

Plot hole: The boys take out the radio control unit from the mini tank. Le Beau is needed to get in and drive it to make it appear okay. After going between the buildings, they get him out, and start it on its way. Trouble is, no remote control and no driver, yet it turns and operates smoothly.

Movie Nut

Funny Thing Happened on the Way to London - S3-E5

Plot hole: When the driver of the car addresses Roberts (the real Roberts that is, not the double), Roberts reprimands him, telling him not to call him Baumann. It is safe to assume the guard was supposed to be speaking German, since he addressed Roberts by his German identity. That poses some interesting questions. Did Roberts speak English? In those days, most Germans did not even have a basic knowledge of the English language. Did he speak German? That would imply he has a good enough command of the German language to pass as a German. Roberts however isn't a spy like Hogan and his crew, but a pilot in the RAF.

Doc

Hot Money - S3-E9

Plot hole: The prisoners fake a fire with some smoke bombs to have an excuse to rush into the print shop and smash up the print plates. Afterwards they even receive thanks and a reward for their valiant efforts. In reality, the guards would notice immediately that nothing in that room is even singed, but everything important has been smashed by fire axes.

Doc

What Time Does the Balloon Go Up? - S3-E24

Plot hole: Hogan has the men fly kites to get wind data and build a hot air balloon for a man to escape in. In reality, kites and hot air balloons are pretty much mutually exclusive - if there's enough wind to fly kites, one can't launch a hot air balloon, and vice versa.

Doc

My Favorite Prisoner - S4-E18

Plot hole: In several occasions throughout the story, e.g. S4E18, Hogan attends parties at Stalag 13 wearing an immaculate US dress uniform. Where did he get that? Dress uniforms are not part of the usual kit a bomber crew brings along with them on their missions.

Doc

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Considering they have a tailor (Newkirk) and are air dropped everything from explosives to penicillin, a Class A dress uniform would hardly be a challenge to make or receive.

stiiggy

Klink: "Hogan, where did you get that uniform?!" - Hogan: "Oh, I had OSS airdrop it together with our latest shipment of explosives and ammunition. We brought it in through our tunnel last night and stored it there."

Doc

I got it from the Red Cross.

stiiggy

Only a few high ranking intelligence officers are aware of Hogan's mission. Hogan's activities would under normal circumstances be considered fraternisation. While it might be true that he could theoretically obtain a class A uniform via the red cross, doing so would brand him as a collaborator and traitor.

Doc

Happy Birthday, Dear Hogan - S4-E26

Plot hole: In the cinema, Hogan and his female underground contact avoid attention from a passing plain clothes policeman by kissing. This is wrong for three reasons. Firstly, 3rd Reich Germany wasn't so liberal that open kissing in the cinema would have passed as normal, it would probably rather have been viewed as libertine and offensive. Secondly, the scene takes place with a speech of Hitler as the background, which can hardly be viewed as romantic, and thirdly, this is even more true for the Gestapo, who was tasked with ratting out political dissent. To a Gestapo officer, ignoring the Führer's speech and kissing instead would make them stand out doubly.

Doc

The Klink Commandos - S5-E3

Plot hole: In his German uniform, Col. Hogan wears a number of decorations, among them the Iron Cross first and second class. When did he earn those if he has just been drafted for a suicide mission? After all he was not posing as a Wehrmacht soldier for a change but wore the uniform "officially". (00:17:00)

Doc

Bombsight - S5-E7

Plot hole: Newkirk says the he'll have the film developed in about ten minutes, and goes into Hogan's wall locker. Why? They have a darkroom down in the tunnel.

Movie Nut

Hogan's Double Life - S6-E22

Plot hole: Five minutes into the show, Klink and Hogan are in Klink's office when a gestapo major comes in. When Hogan leaves, Klink mentions Hogan's name and the major realises with surprise that that is Hogan and then says he knows all about Hogan and his description. That alone should have led the major to know that this was Hogan. Hogan also has his name on a tag on his jacket.

terry s

Rockets or Romance - S6-E24

Plot hole: Hogan has his men play romantic music over the radio. Earlier they were afraid of the radio in the observation post being detected. Elsewhere in the series, they try to avoid sending too long to avoid being homed in on - which is correct. Now, if they were to play a whole record at once, wouldn't the homing devices pick up on the transmitter at the camp?

Doc

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It is shown several times in the series that the detectors are brought out at specific times / events. With how much control they have over the camp they would know when those times were / more than likely be able to tamper with them. The other times they were worried were simply because either A. They were close to the scanning times or B. New ones got shipped in that they didn't have time to tamper with yet.

In the whole series, they never once are shown tampering with the detection equipment or obtaining any "scanning schedules" or anything. Seriously, did I sleep through all of that selectively or are you pulling this stuff out of thin air?

Doc

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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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