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.
Doc
6th Jan 2017
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
30th Nov 2016
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: In this episode, the Royal Navy submarine that acts as a radio relay for Hogan's men is hunted by a destroyer. Like in most such Hollywood scenes, depth charges are seen exploding right next to the submarine, which just shrugs the blasts off. In reality, any depth charge that went off closer than 100 meters was instantly deadly to a submerged sub.
30th Nov 2016
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: In several episodes, Hogan's men communicate by radio with a British submarine, and the dialog hints that the sub is submerged at the time. During the WWII era, submarines could not communicate by radio without surfacing first. In most episodes one might argue that the sub could be running shallow with a mast up, which would perhaps be within the technical possibilities of the era, but in this episode, the sub is talking to Hogan's men while under attack by a destroyer. This pretty much rules out running at periscope depth, because ramming was regularly-used tactic for killing subs that were in the process of diving or surfacing. To avoid confusion: Nowadays, subs can communicate while running several hundred feet deep by using VLF and ELF. However, these are definitely not capable of transmitting voice, but are text-only.
18th Nov 2016
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Guess Who Came to Dinner? - S4-E9
Factual error: Schultz says, Von Grubner has "a castle right next to the Führer's in Berchtesgaden." Hitler's famous real estate in Obersalzberg wasn't a castle but a mountain chalet based on a former farm estate called the "Steinhaus".
14th Nov 2016
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
16th Oct 2016
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: Erica says she has a plane to take Klink and her to Argentina. The only transatlantic airplane in Germany at that time was the FW-200 Condor, whose military value would have made it hard to requisition even for an SS Gruppenführer (which would be the real rank a "General" would hold in the SS, different mistake), let alone for his wife. Plus, even the FW-200 could not have made it even to the Brazilian coast without a refueling stop somewhere along the African west coast, which would have been a problem, because Germany had no possessions there. Klink, being a Luftwaffe (Air Force) officer, should have at least been suspicious of that plan, even if he didn't know all the details off the top of his head.
28th Sep 2016
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
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.
11th Nov 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
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.
11th Nov 2015
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
Factual error: The sign outside Einsargen Prison says "high security area." For some inexplicable reason, the German writing just above reads "Hochsicherheitssteckdose", thus declaring the area to be a high security electric wall outlet. (00:25:40)
14th Oct 2015
The Martian (2015)
Factual error: Prior to and during the orbital rendezvous rescue scene, the dialog states that a) the capsule with Watney is on a parabolic trajectory and will drop back to Mars b) the Hermes is on a swing-by trajectory that will carry it past mars c) the Hermes doesn't have the fuel to spare to do more than swing-by, i.e. They can't brake enough to even enter an orbit (yes, when one is on a fly-by, one has to brake to get into an orbit. Watney would be way slower still) d) the relative speed of the spaceships at the time of rendezvous is less than 20 m/s e) the spaceships are at a distance of less than 200m. All those statements can't be true at the same time. What orbit you are on is pretty much defined by your altitude and speed. If the speed and altitude of two spacecraft are the same, they are on the same (general shape of) orbit. Conversely, if they are on the same altitude but one is on a suborbital trajectory and one doing a swing-by, the latter is faster than the former by hundreds, if not thousands of m/s. By comparison, the rendezvous depicted in that scene would be like granny with her walker trying to "rendezvous" with an Amtrak train at full speed.The dialog states explicitly that the Hermes can't brake into orbit of Mars to pick up Watney because it doesn't have the necessary reaction mass to do that and get home too. If they can't even brake into orbit, they can brake to match Watney's speed even less. Even without that dialog, it wouldn't make sense either way. The acceleration required to do that would be measured in thousands of m/s. Translated into fuel, that would be dozens, if not hundreds of tons. No spacecraft this side of complete science fiction carries that much spare fuel, for the simple reason that lofting the extra weight to orbit would be prohibitively expensive.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: The dialogue doesn't state that Watney's capsule is on a parabolic trajectory. In fact, in one scene, Mitch and Bruce explain to Vincent that to allow the MAV to 'escape Mars' orbit', it needs to be made 5 tons lighter to allow it to reach the speed required for rendezvous.
1st Sep 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: Towards the end of the episode, Burkhalter gets a call from a General Seidenbaum. Anybody with such a "Jewish" name would have been weeded out of the officer corps by the Nazis. In fact, anyone of that name would have had great trouble even getting his Ariernachweis (proof or aryan ancestry), and without carrying a copy with him he could not have opened a charge account at the local bakery. Most people with such names (those who managed to pass the Nazi board of racial review) had them changed to more "German" ones like Müller or Schmidt to escape the constant bullying. A little bit of background on "jewish" names: At some time during the medieval period, Jews in the German Reich who traditionally didn't use last names were forced to have them. Many selected names like Gruenbaum, Cornfield, etc. Which over time were perceived as "typical Jewish" names, even though many bearers weren't even of Jewish faith any more.
21st Jul 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Six Lessons from Madame LaGrange - S5-E22
Factual error: Hilda is writing with her left hand. At the time of the Third Reich, it was still the practice in Germany to force left-handed children to learn to write with their right hand.
6th Jul 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
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.
13th May 2015
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
Factual error: The British pilot takes off in his Avro Triplane even though the American pilot hangs from his tail. By our modern standards, the planes of this era would be considered ultralights. The weight of a human hanging from its tail would put any ultralight so badly out of trim that it would stall instantly, even assuming it could handle the extra weight of a second person at all.
11th Apr 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
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."
9th Apr 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
The Sergeant's Analyst - S5-E23
Factual error: In this episode, the running gag is that Schultz keeps flattening Col. Hogan's pumpernickel loaves. In reality, pumpernickel is a very compact bread that contains virtually no air at all and is impossible to flatten in this way. The shape is also wrong: pumpernickel is almost always baked in rectangular baking pans. To avoid confusion: the original, German pumpernickel is quite different from what's sometimes referred to as pumpernickel in England and America.
8th Apr 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Hogan Gives a Birthday Party - S2-E1
Factual error: When the crew in the plane gets ready to drop the bombs on the refinery, Hogan (in the pilot seat) tells Carter (who is looking through the bomb sight) exactly when to push the button. In fact, the pilot of a WW2 bomber had no way of even knowing when exactly to release the bombs - it was the job of the bombardier, looking through his targeting optics, to know that. Carter at the bomb sight should be telling Hogan how exactly to steer to get the bombs onto the target.
2nd Apr 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: When the safe doors blow, we have another case of a fuse still burning after the charge blows. Since the charge blows when the fuse is burnt up, that's literally impossible. (00:20:00)
2nd Apr 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Will the Blue Baron Strike Again? - S4-E12
Factual error: The "Blue Baron" tells the dancer that the Kaiser gave him a certain medal. In fact, the medal he points to (and the girl fondles) is a WW2 repeat badge to the Iron Cross first class, instituted in 1939 to denote presentations of the Iron Cross first class to personnel who had already received it in WW1. He may have received the original Iron Cross from the Kaiser, but by the time he had a chance to receive that repeat badge, the Kaiser was long through handing out medals. (00:15:10)
24th Mar 2015
Hogan's Heroes (1965)
Factual error: When the farmer sticks his pitchfork into the haystack, a scream is heard, but then everybody emerges unscathed. Wounds from pitchforks aren't like sitting on a brass tack - even a quick jab usually earns you a trip to the surgeon (I've seen such wounds), a vigorous stab like the one in the scene would go through limbs and could easily kill a man. There's no way anybody would walk away from such a hit.
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