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.
Factual error: Hogan was an officer and would not have been put in the same POW camp as the enlisted men.
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.
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: Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress, is mentioned many times, but nobody outside of Hitler's circle of friends knew about Eva at the time.
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.
Factual error: Throughout the entire series, there are often uniforms that are incorrect; an oversized eagle on German Visor Caps appears most often.
Factual error: The first episode of Hogan's Heroes (Season 1) begins with a view of Stalag 13 and a title: "Germany, 1942." That said, Colonel Hogan indicates in several episodes that he has worked in the Pentagon although construction of the Pentagon was actually completed in 1943.
Factual error: Numerous times throughout the series, there are palm trees seen in different shots. Stalag 13 was supposed to be just on the outskirts of Hammelburg. The only place anywhere near there that could support palms was the area around the Bodensee (Lake Constance), so therefore the palms seen are a big mistake.
Factual error: The program depicted WW2, 1939-1945 but several vehicles are 1947-48's.
Factual error: Throughout the series, the SS and the Gestapo are often used interchangeably, as if the two organisations were basically the same. The most notorious example is "Major" Hochstetter, who sometimes claims to be Gestapo, sometimes SS, most of the time wearing an SS uniform. This is historically incorrect. The SS was a paramilitary and military organisation, while the Gestapo was a secret police force and since 1939 part of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. The Gestapo, being essentially a plain clothes police, never had any uniform of their own.
Factual error: In several episodes, German hand grenades, the famous "potato mashers" are seen. In (almost) all cases the Stielhandgranate 43, easily identified by its pull pin through the base of the head, was used. If the series is set in 42, the grenades should be the 24 or the 39 model, because the Stielhandgranate 43 - as the name suggests - was introduced in 1943 and didn't see widespread deployment until 1944. The earlier models didn't have a pull pin but used a pull cord that ran through the handle and was hidden by a screw cap at the end.
Factual error: Throughout the show, German officers talk about "Nazi" this, "Nazi" that, even in official capacity. In fact, the mere mention of the diminutive "Nazi" could get you in serious hot water for the disrespect and dissent it implied. Correct would be either "National Socialist" or some reference to the Reich: e.g. "Officer of the Third Reich" instead of "Nazi officer."
Factual error: Klink usually wears an EK1 (EK= Eisernes Kreuz = Iron Cross first/second class) chest cross with a WW1 EK1 repeat badge, but he neither wears an EK2 ribbon nor a WW1 EK2 repeat badge. This is not a legal combination, he either has to wear both or none at all. The EK1 and EK2 repeat badges were awarded to soldiers who were awarded an EK1 in WW1 and another in WW2. To be awarded an EK1, you had to have the EK2 already. The Legal combinations would be: EK2 ribbon in the button hole with or without EK1 chest cross, EK2 ribbon in the button hole with repeat badge with or without EK1 chest cross, again with or without repeat badge. One legal way of wearing it is seen in S5E3, "The Klink Commandos", where Hogan wears a black-and-white WW1 EK2 ribbon with repeat badge and an EK1 chest cross with repeat badge. It doesn't make any sense for him to wear that (separate mistake), but the way of wearing it is correct.
Factual error: During the show, many (not to say most) higher officers are seen wearing a Knight's Cross with Crossed Swords and Oak Leaves, the fourth highest award for military valor of the Third Reich. In fact, a total of 177 of this and higher-ranking medals were awarded during the entire war, most of them in '43 and after. The series is allegedly set mostly in '42. Historically correct, most Knight's crosses should be of base rank or with oak leaves only, as of these categories more than 8000 were presented.
Factual error: In several episodes, Hogan and his men are confronted with mobile missile launchers. These are depicted as a missile on a flatbed from which it is launched at the push of a button. While there existed mobile German missile launchers for the A4 missile better known as "V2", they consisted of a whole column of trucks, among them a transport truck for the missile with erector hydraulics, at least two tankers for the fuel, a control vehicle and several other trucks full of equipment, not counting the transport capability for a dozen or more operators that were necessary to launch them. Also the missiles weren't launched from the transport vehicles, but placed on mobile launch racks that were transported separately.
Factual error: In three episodes of season 1, an aircraft is shown dropping parachutists. This aircraft is a Fairchild C-119. First flown as the C-82 Packet on Sep. 10, 1944, it wasn't operational until 1947.
Factual error: Every episode and season there is "snow" on the ground even if it is warm.
Factual error: During the whole show, the iconic Prussian helmet, the Pickelhaube, is present on Klink's desk. If Klink was a flier in WWI as he often hints, that is wrong. The German Reich's air corps didn't wear such helmets but had peaked caps instead.
