In the waning days of World War II, the P-47 Thunderbolt flown by my wife's grandfather was shot down. He parachuted behind enemy lines and wound up in a Nazi POW camp. Russian ground forces were breaking though Germany from the East. As the Russians treated captured Nazis a lot more harshly than other Allied forces, a guard used hand gestures and scribbles in the dirt to orchestrate a prison break with granddad.
While behind enemy lines, the German solider held a Luger on my wife's grandparent. Any time they met other Axis troops, the guard make show of having caught an American. Once they got into Allied territory, the guard handed over the Luger and became the prisoner of an American pilot. Eventually they both made it to a base to which as the two parted ways, the German solider saluted before surrendering his credentials and gun to his co-conspirator. The two were never to meet again.
I tell this story because I often joke to my wife that her grandfather was the inspiration for the World War II sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Though to be honest, there's a episode of M*A*S*H* that follows my in-law's plight a lot more closer. But if you ever saw pictures of my wife's grandfather in his uniform, he looked a heck of a lot like Col. Hogan.
Hogan's Heroes aired on CBS for six seasons from 1965-71. It starred Robert Crane as Col. Robert Hogan. The pilot along with the rest of the POWs of Stalag 13 very well could leave the prison camp at any time as the guards and it's commandant, Col. Klink, are incompetent boobs. But in secret, the soldiers have been ordered to remain behind bars, secretly working to sabotage the Axis forces with a hidden radio, vast system of tunnels and contacts with the German and French resistance.
Klink knows that Hogan and his men are behind the string of catastrophes that besiege the Nazis. But with his perfect record of no recorded official escapes, Klink survives being transferred to the dreaded Russian front. Klink's main prison guard, the portly Sgt. Schultz also keeps a blind eye as long as whatever Hogan does won't get him into trouble.
The argument that secretly Klink and Schultz were working for the Allies in order to save their own necks seems to be confirmed in this issue. For one, Klink acknowledges on several occasions that he knows Hogan has a secret radio and other spy devices. Yet he does very little to uncover it. Klink also doesn't seem very upset that Hogan's men have brought in several goats onto the compound. The same goes for Schultz, who permits the farm animals as long as he gets a share of fresh milk every day.
The goats are just a goofy prop for the rest of this issue's plot. A noted German spy has decided to use Stalag 13 as her headquarters while she plans a secret mission. Hogan is tasked with learning the names of her spy ring. The list is in her head and things get tricky when one of the goats causes the intelligence coordinator to get injured. Now with amnesia, Hogan must play the part of a German doctor to help the enemy regain her memories and save the Allies from a forthcoming Nazi invasion. All the while, Klink's uniform is falling to pieces thanks to those hungry goats.
Hogan's Heroes managed to do something that really nobody has been able to do before or after- make Nazis funny and fan-favorite. I've heard many fans of the show express their love for Schultz in particular. Schultz was played by Austrian born American actor John Banner. Banner, also a Jew, lost a lot of his family to the Nazis. The actor would often claim that Sgt. Schutz was not a Nazi but instead a good German who got forced into fighting a war that he was not in support of. So maybe Schultz really was secretly on the side of the Allies.
It has long been a goal of mine to own a copy of Hogan's Heroes. My dad had a coverless copy that I would pour over whenever he would bring out his comic book collection. If I'm not mistaken, this was the issue he had!
Part of Dell Comics' fabled line of comics based on licensed properties, Hogan's Heroes ran sporadically for 9 issues from 1966-69. The likenesses of many of the actors is pretty decent. Sadly, the images of Cpl. Newkirk, played by future game show legend Richard Dawson looks nothing like him. But I really thought French resistance member LeBeau and Schultz were literally going to jump off the page; they're so lifelike.
Before I go, why don't I bring you up to date on my 'real life' inspirations for Hogan's Heroes. Ernest Useted, Sr. returned home to Connecticut and married high-school sweetheart Helen. They had several children before relocating to St. Louis. Ernie passed away in the late 90s before I had a chance to meet his eldest grandchild, Jan.
As for the German solider, I know a little about him. After Helen passed away, I had a chance to inspect the Luger and credentials first hand. With a degree in history, I was able to utilize a few websites. I learned that after the war, the guard was interned in Oklahoma and then Nebraska. A number of low-level German POWS were kept in the US up to around 1947 as investigations were made into each prisoners war crimes backgrounds.
In 1946, the former Nazi known as Schmiddt, was granted work release parole and worked in a Nebraskan grocery store with several other prisoners. One resident recalls that the Germans were' very quiet and polite. A couple went on to marry local girls.'
By the fall of '46, Schmiddt was released and quietly disappeared. He probably stayed in the US as former records of the POWs would have recorded if the parolees returned back to Germany. A number of former Nazi soldiers changed names without going through official channels after their release to further distance from their Axis past selves and it's possible Schmiddt did too. It's just another one of history's mysteries I guess.
Hogan's Heroes will forever be tied into the war from which it came. Though Ernie and Schmiddt's backstory probably had nothing to do with the show, their story of their escape in World War II will forever be linked to the show in my eyes. And the comic book of course is yet another link to it. That's the beauty of personal histories. They have unusual pathways!
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
Completing this review completes Task #12 of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge. 'More than 20 years old.'
