The Ghost of General Lee <ghost@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>>I had a number of collected ones in the FAQ, ages and ages ago. I guess
I
>>should dust it off and update it, nicht wahr?
>Bitte?
Here's an extract from that section.
HOGAN'S HEROES GOOFS
Quite a bit of this comes very courtesy of Otto. See his Hogan's Heroes
page at
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/6405/
Other goofs spied by Eva Seifert, Max Schulte and other sharp-eyed folks.
The show was never meant to be completely historically accurate, but
Hogan's
tends to be particularly bad at it. (Fortunately, that's very funny too!
:-)
* The German Cross on Hochstetter's uniform should be silver. Moreover,
Gestapo
men never wore uniforms -- only the SS. In fairness, none of the
non-regular
Gestapo agents, even up to the final one (Major Pruhst, played by
Malachi
Throne), wore uniforms either; the decision was probably done to make
Hochstetter become more recognisable.
* Klink is supposedly undistinguished in combat, but his medals don't bear
this
out, possessing a WWI Iron Cross (both first and second class) for
bravery
and the WWII Eagle Spanges awarded to those who won the Iron Crosses
again
in the second World War. He also carries the 1936 Pilot's Badge, and, in
a
particularly pedantic goof, the Luftwaffe ground combat badge (not
awarded
until late 1942 and then only to officers who participated in at least
three
ground combat manoeuvres).
* Schultz has a lot of prop trouble himself. In addition to being a Master
Sergeant (not a regular Sergeant), or "Hauptfeldwebel", he may have
toted an
American-made Krag rifle, not a German issue one, and wore the wrong
helmet.
During WWII Germany made three types, the M-35 (Luftwaffe eagle on the
left
and a national colour ****eld on the right), the M-40 (eagle decal only)
and
the M-42 (rough finish and no decals by Fuehrer's order; all helmets
then
issued also had to have the decals struck). Schultz has an M-42 style
helmet
but the finish is smooth and both M-35 decals are on it. The other
guards
also occasionally carried American-made rifles, even the SS, apparently;
most were also issued the M1 Thompson submachine gun instead of the
proper
MP-40. (Max says: "Hollywood knows about as much about guns as my dog!")
* The prop department also couldn't tell the difference between cars.
General
Burkhalter does not drive a Mercedes, but rather a 3-axle Maybach
Zeppelin
(with a fake Mercedes hood ornament); the small trucks that appeared in
the
show, usually as German trans****ts or ambulances, are all American
models;
and while Klink's staff car was the right nationality (a Mercedes 540
SS),
that particular model was at least ten years old by the time the show
was
supposed to have taken place (the 540 SS dates from the early '30s).
Interestingly enough, Hitler had a 540 SSK.
* And of course, if the prop department couldn't do the cars right, what
about
license plates? Most have the designation WH, which means Wehrmacht.
Neither
the SS nor the Luftwaffe would be driving those.
* Geography was not their strong suit either. Hammelburg, Bavaria (where a
real
Stalag, though not a Luftstalag, did exist [XIII C, liberated, retaken
and
finally freed 6 April 1945; General Patton's son-in-law was held
there]), is
approximately 150mi (250km) southeast of Duesseldorf, and about 215mi
(360km)
southwest of Berlin. Even if we consider the show not to actually be in
the
real city of Hammelburg, it still doesn't explain how the show had a
sign
saying Duesseldorf 20km and Berlin 30km. (And the fictional Hammelburg
is
clearly placed in the Duesseldorf vicinity anyway.)
Moreover, the show never explained how people got to their submarine
rendezvous and escaped out so easily. If the show really did take place
in
Hammelburg, it would have been 225mi (380km) to Hamburg, the nearest
harbour
(though too closely guarded) and about 250mi (420km) to the nearest open
sea.
And, since the show was filmed in Culver City (near Hollywood), the
scrub
and vegetation match Southern California's, complete with chaparral and
eucalyptus trees, not Germany's.
* There were only eight Luftstalags in Germany during WWII. As for the
real
Stalags, there were at least fifty, but their numbering was
inconsistent.
There was, for example, a Stalag XX A and B, but an Offlag 64. Moreover,
these only count the camps where American POWs were held.
* Newkirk's uniform wasn't RAF issue until the 1950s, but interestingly
enough, his uniform *was* correct in the pilot!
* The show often seems to treat the Waffen SS and Gestapo synonymously,
which
is not the case. The Gestapo acted as the civilian underground police
force,
arresting Jews and other proscribed ethnicities for the KZ's (say
"Ka-Tsets")
as well as rounding up other political "undesirables". The SS, on the
other
hand, were actually an army ("Waffen" should imply this) in uniform, and
directly acted on behalf of the Nazi party. Hochstetter wore an SS
uniform,
and his, like all of them, bore Hitler's signature on the sleeve.
* The ranking on the show makes little sense. Carter (though a Lieutenant
in the pilot, of course), is an E-7 (Sergeant First Class), outranking
Kinchloe (E-6 Staff Sergeant) -- but Kinchloe is supposed to be second
in
command! Worse, the RAF rank of Cor****al is equivalent to 1st Sergeant
(E-8), so Newkirk outranks them both.
* Even more bizarre is that American uniforms were wrong (though
mercifully
on none of the major characters)! Look closely at the extras -- many are
sometimes wearing "modern" (for 1966-71) Army garb, even Vietnam War-era
M65 jackets.
The show's QA department also had a few clinkers; on one episde
producer-slash-
director Edward H. Feldman's name was printed "Feldmam" (still finding
name),
and the opening music theme for another episode repeated the main theme
twice,
destroying the musical timing for the first minute or so of the first act
("The Return of Major Bonacelli", #117).
So, like I say, I need to update the rest of it (mostly the biographies,
since the FAQ was done before the deaths of Hovis, Klemperer and Askin).
Also, I have to update the TV schedule, the DVD list and the weblinks
section.
--
Cameron Kaiser * ckaiser@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
* posting with a Commodore 128
personal page: http://www.armory.com/%7Espectre/
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