Hogan’s Heroes
The premise of Hogan’s Heroes is almost too ridiculous to consider, a commando operation being run out of a German prisoner of war camp. It was produced near the end of a period when military comedies were common, usually because of the manner in which innocents pointed out the absurdities of the military. McHale’s Navy, Gomer Pyle USMC, and F Troop were all examples of the genre. But none were as much of a stretch as Hogan’s Heroes, in which American ingenuity, with a nod to its Allies, always trumped stodgy Teutonic closemindedness and prevailed in the end, thanks to their willing devotion to duty and overall goodness.
The historical inaccuracies abound, as would be expected from the premise. German POW camps were separated by both nationality and rank. Americans, British, and French prisoners were nearly always kept in separate compounds within a camp, and officers were separated from the enlisted men. An exception to the rule would be foreigners serving in another nation’s armed services, for example Polish, Canadian, and South Africans all served in the British RAF and were imprisoned in the same camps as their British comrades as RAF prisoners.
There was a considerable effort to assist prisoners of war attempting to escape, run by both the British and the Americans throughout the war, but this is barely hinted at in the series. Money, escape maps, the identity of safe houses, and other escape aids were smuggled into the camps via ingenious means, including in cigarettes packages, board games such as Monopoly, and pressed inside phonograph records. Many camps managed to obtain radios, but they were receivers for obtaining war news from the BBC, not transmitters. German triangulation devices would have detected a transmitter quickly, particularly a stationary unit.
The absurdity of the show’s premise did not prevent it from becoming an instant hit, and it ran for six seasons, launched a comic book version, lunchboxes, games, and even an album of popular songs from the World War II era, sung by members of its cast Ivan Dixon, Richard Dawson, Robert Clary, and Larry Hovis. Ironically four of the main German characters were played by Jewish actors; Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink); John Banner (Schultz); Leon Askin (General Burkhalter); and Howard Caine (SS Major Hochstetter). Several of the actors on the show fled Nazi Germany prior to the war, with Robert Clary and John Banner spending time in concentration camps before the war.
About the only historical accuracy contained within Hogan’s Heroes is the aversion by German military men toward being sent to the Eastern Front to face the Russians. The SS and Gestapo were anything but inept in their dealings with civilians and escaping prisoners, and the vast majority of allied prisoners who escaped from German POW camps were quickly retaken prisoner. Many were murdered, including the majority of Poles, Czechs, and other nationalities which served with the British forces. Hogan’s Heroes remains popular, mainly for the manner in which the Germans are portrayed as buffoons taken in by clever scams, both outlandish and implausible.