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.
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