Sgt Schultz with Krag ?

bk42261 · Feb 22, 2016

Watching "Hogan's Heroes" and it appears to me that Sgt.
Schultz is carrying a Krag rifle. I don't know much about the
Krag, and understand that this is a comedy, but just curious
if that would be possible?

rwsmith · Feb 22, 2016

Occupation of Norway.....

Sergeant Schultz picked up the Krag when he was robbing and pillaging during the "Rape of Norway". Ole and Eric told him to go ahead and take it anyway because it was obsolete.

Double-O-Dave · Feb 23, 2016

Yes, I believe you are correct. As I recall, both the characters who portrayed Sgt. Schultz and Col. Klink were actually in real life German born Jews. They agreed to play their respective characters on the "Hogan's Heroes" show only if they played inept German (not Nazi) soldiers, and they refused to use Nazi weapons as well. No problem about the non-Nazi parts as the Luftwaffe ran the POW camps. I don't recall ever seeing Col. Klink with any weapon, but I remember with shock the first time I realized Sgt. Schultz was carrying a Krag rather than the Kar-98 rifle.

I used to love that show when I was a kid.

Regards,

Dave

DWalt · Feb 23, 2016

It's probably the first prop rifle they came up with and the producers probably figured that a rifle is a rifle so who cares what kind it is. HOWEVER, during WWI, there were .30-40 Krags issued to some rear-area U. S. troops in France. I seem to remember that most went to military railroad workers. Maybe Sgt Schultz picked it up then. There were also some of the old Colt DA revolvers in .38 Long Colt issued to rear area soldiers.

Anyone remember that movie made about Bob Crane (Hogan, don't remember what the name was)? He was one kinky dude, ended up dead over it. Probably one of the most depressing movies you'll ever see.

Cyrano · Feb 23, 2016

Denmark also used a Krag rifle. Perhaps he got his from there.

2152hq · Feb 23, 2016

DWalt said:
Anyone remember that movie made about Bob Crane (Hogan, don't remember what the name was)? He was one kinky dude, ended up dead over it. Probably one of the most depressing movies you'll ever see.

Auto Focus

GB · Feb 23, 2016

John Banner was Austrian Born Jew. He immigrated to the US in the 1930s. He was a US vet. who served in WW2 in the Army. (Appeared in several recruiting posters and attained the rank of Sgt.) Died in Austria while visiting relatives and is buried there. He had very strong feelings about Nazis. As to the Krag, I was unable to locate any reference to why that rifle was the choice but as there are other period correct weapons in the show, I suspect that it may have been Mr. Banner's way of a personal statement. ( The Bio information came from Wikipedia.)

BOMBTEC · Feb 23, 2016

Hogan Hero's Krag rifle

bk42261 said:
Watching "Hogan's Heroes" and it appears to me that Sgt.
Schultz is carrying a Krag rifle. I don't know much about the
Krag, and understand that this is a comedy, but just curious
if that would be possible?

Other than the Krag rifle. I have always noted that ALL the Uniforms from the Wardrobe Dept. was SPOT ON PERIOD CORRECT. As a long time collector of WWII Military and specially German Military Metals. Which I started collecting while I was a Military Depend (son of a Army Sgt) stationed in Germany in 1961. The show even though a comedy was authentic to the time period. Even down to the names of the German Shepherd dogs all female names.
For a spoof WWII comedy there was a lot of thought in the production of the show.

bob1956 · Feb 23, 2016

My father was in Germany during the war and as a kid we loved that show. He made us change the channel cause he said the show didn't depict what the real life was during the war.

arjay · Feb 23, 2016

Mine was the same way.He was swiss

BigCityChief · Feb 23, 2016

Same thing in my house.

GatorFarmer · Feb 23, 2016

While some of the people involved in Hogan's Heroes were anti Nazis - Robert Clary was sent to Buchenwald, some people involved with the production were Nazi fetishists or sympathizers. Hence the sometimes detailed insignia and uniforms. The sets were also used for one of the Ilsa movies, the one where she was in the SS.

Club Gun Fan · Feb 23, 2016

In one episode Klink leads guards outside the gate. There is a close-up of him and he is carrying a Luger. When he returns, there is another close up of him and he has a P-38 in his hand.

sheepdawg · Feb 23, 2016

bob1956 said:
My father was in Germany during the war and as a kid we loved that show. He made us change the channel cause he said the show didn't depict what the real life was during the war.

Ditto my father who was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1944 and captured by the Americans in October 44. He'd turn the channel if he caught me watching it. Said Klink would never have been a Luftwaffe Colonel.

BearBio · Feb 23, 2016

The Germans used a multitude of captured weapons (Norwegian 45's, High-Powers from the captured FN factory, Stars, Astras, even Garands and Himmler carried a S & W 38)=most went to rear echelon units and secondary troops and police.

Alpo · Feb 23, 2016

Something I was just the other day said that ALL the camp guards' rifles were Krags - that they were easier to come by. Makes sense, if true. That's why so many B-westerns used 92 Winchesters. Hell, The General - Buster Keaton silent about the War Against Yankee Aggression. They used Trapdoor Springfields and Single Action Army Colts. Easier to come by.

The submachine guns the guards used were split - about 2/3 were MP40s and the other third were Thompsons with the buttstock removed.

In one episode Schultz is being sent to the Russian Front. So he's drinking away his sorrows. Hogan and the boys don't want to have to train a new sergeant, so they come up with a plan to keep him. They are in town, the boys are waiters at some function, and they "try to escape". Hogan shows Klink how Schultz "caught" them, and Klink cancels the transfer. The scene has Schultz, passed out drunk in a chair, holding a subgun, and the prisoners standing in front of him yelling, "We surrender, don't shoot". Klink is seeing this from behind, and can't see Schultz is asleep. Camera angle keeps flipping - from Klink, seeing Schultz's back and the prisoners, then from the prisoners, seeing Schultz's front and Hogan and Klink. Every time the angle changes, so does his gun. From one view he has an MP40. From the other angle, a stockless Thompson.

Gamecock · Feb 23, 2016

Alpo said:
Hell, The General - Buster Keaton silent about the War Against Yankee Aggression. They used Trapdoor Springfields and Single Action Army Colts.

And the cartridge revolvers in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

DWalt · Feb 23, 2016

HH was supposed to have been a comedy (albeit a strange topic for one), not a realistic depiction of life in a Nazi POW camp, so considerations of historical accuracy and continuity were not particularly important. At the time, the fact that it became so popular given its theme was very surprising. I suppose life in a German POW camp as depicted in "Stalag 17" or "the Great Escape" was more accurate. Long ago in the mid-1960s I worked with an ex-GI who had been interned in a WWII German POW camp. He was still bitter over it and hated anything or anyone German. I don't know, but I suspect he was not a fan of HH. Nonetheless, life as a POW in a German camp was pure luxury as compared to conditions in a Japanese POW camp. Very few American POWs ever got out of those alive. On the other hand, German POWs held in American POW camps in the US had a relatively soft life, and many of them even wanted to stay in the US after the war.

rwsmith · Feb 23, 2016

Another guy that didn't talk much......

bob1956 said:
My father was in Germany during the war and as a kid we loved that show. He made us change the channel cause he said the show didn't depict what the real life was during the war.

A friend's Uncle wouldn't talk much except to say, "It wasn't anything like Hogan's Heroes."

Even so, it had some hilarious moments.

"Shaddup, Klink!"

"I'll surround this camp with ring of steel!"

"You'll spend 30 days in the cooler, you'll stay in the cooler.......Even after the WAR!"

"There's never been an escape from Stalag 13"

"Klink....you IDIOT!"

rwsmith · Feb 23, 2016

I think it may have made some difference....

DWalt said:
HH was supposed to have been a comedy (albeit a strange topic for one), not a realistic depiction of life in a Nazi POW camp, so considerations of historical accuracy and continuity were not particularly important. At the time, the fact that it became so popular given its theme was very surprising. I suppose life in a German POW camp as depicted in "Stalag 17" or "the Great Escape" was more accurate. Long ago in the mid-1960s I worked with an ex-GI who had been interned in a WWII German POW camp. He was still bitter over it and hated anything or anyone German. I don't know, but I suspect he was not a fan of HH. Nonetheless, life as a POW in a German camp was pure luxury as compared to conditions in a Japanese POW camp. Very few American POWs ever got out of those alive. On the other hand, German POWs held in American POW camps in the US had a relatively soft life, and many of them even wanted to stay in the US after the war.

I think it made some difference that it was a Luftwaffe camp, a little more class and more officers among the prisoners, the real camp being almost exclusively for officers.

Sgt Schultz with Krag ?

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