Hogan's Heroes

One in Every Crowd - S3-E10

Stupidity: A prisoner, Jack Williams, rats out Hogan and his team to the Germans, so they fake his death and smuggle him back to London for court-martial. What a stupid thing to do. They should just shoot him and be done with it. First, what if he escaped from captivity on the way through occupied Europe? Second, he has done nothing wrong. Being a grass isn't a crime. Third, Hogan and his men are the war criminals - they often engage in combat activities out of uniform. Williams is going to be acquitted.

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Suggested correction: Not true. The crime he committed was treason, a capital offence under both civil and military law at the time. Being a partisan is not an offence under the Geneva Convention, as these were mainly captured flyers, led by a small team of specialists. To execute a prisoner, as you suggest Hogan's men should do, is murder, also a capital offence at the time.

stiiggy

Nobody from Stalag 13 accompanies Williams back to London - so where is the evidence of his "crime"? Hogan and his men often take part in combat activities both out of uniform and even wearing German uniforms, which is itself a one way ticket to a firing squad.

The evidence is the information he gave to the Germans (actually, the spy disguised as a German major) and signed it.

How to Win Friends and Influence Nazis - S3-E7

Stupidity: As Burkhalter tries to straighten the picture of the Führer, he stands right in front of it, looking directly at it. A moment later, Klink walks over and fiddles with the thing. It would be absolutely ridiculous to claim they wouldn't instantly notice the difference between a photograph of a microphone and an actual microphone inset into the picture at this distance.

Doc

The Missing Klink - S4-E15

Stupidity: The plans Hochstetter and Burkhalter find in Hilda's desk turn out to be for the Hindenburg, a large dirigible. Burkhalter says he never saw the plane (sic) they show before. The Hindenburg was a German propaganda icon and very well known to every child in Germany. It's nigh impossible a Luftwaffe (Air Force) general would not recognize plans of a dirigible when he saw them, or not know the Hindenburg. Note that despite everything, the plans from Hilda's desk are probably meant to be not the same ones Carter later says he found inside the boxes - A Luftwaffe general not recognizing the difference between a jet plane and a dirigible is even more stupid. To avoid unnecessary corrections: Yes, according to the boxes the kits aren't for the Hindenburg but for JU-87 Stuka bombers, but that's a different mistake and not relevant for this one.

Doc

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Trivia: During WW2 Robert Clary, who played Louis LeBeau, had been imprisoned at Drancy internment camp in France, and at Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp where he was tattooed with the number "A5714." He was the youngest of 14 children. Twelve members of his immediate family were sent to Auschwitz, and perished.

Super Grover

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Answer: Nimrod's actual identity was never revealed in the series. It was only known that he was a British intelligence agent. Nimrod was not Colonel Klink. Hogan had only implied it was him as a ruse to get Klink returned as camp commandant, not wanting him replaced by someone more competent who would impede the Heroes war activities. The term "nimrod" is also slang for a nerdy, doofus type of person, though it's unclear why that was his code name.

raywest

"Nimrod" is originally a king and hero mentioned in the Tanach and taken into the Bible and the Koran. His name is often used in the sense of "stalker," "hunter," and sometimes figuratively as "womanizer" as in "hunter of women." I've never seen it used to denote a nerdy person, and although I cannot disprove that connotation, I think given his role, the traditional meaning is more likely the intended one.

Doc

It's widespread enough that Wikipedia has an entire section on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod#In_popular_culture

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