I happened to be killing a few minutes and saw an old episode of Hogans Hero's
It was a scene where Hogan and Shultz were walking around Stalag 13 and I noticed the rifle Shultz was carring.... It was a 30-40 Krag..I woulda thought they could have found at least a Mauser for a prop seeing they are pretty common.
Just ANOTHER Hollyweird screw up.

Well,I'll be dipped. I just watched that same episode and thought the same thing. It WAS a nice Krag.

"I know nothing! I know nnnnnnUTHing about this rifle, Hogan. It vaz giffen to me, and dat is all I know."

Ever see the scene in the movie Sniper II where the title character is holding a Mosin Nagant and actin' all expert, talking about how the '98 Mauser is the finest rifle ever made?

That's nothing, there was one episode where Sgt. Shultz had an M-1.

I would bet the writers had a Norwegian or Danish Krag portrayed.

I think that a lot of captured stuff was used for less than front line duty
or "substitute standard". The M95 Mannlicher and 98/40 also come to mind.

YMMV

Hollywierd prop men don't have much of a clue a lot of the time. And since GUNS are evil they don't take the time to get one either.

Somehow I find it hard to believe the writers of Hogan were thaty informed about history or attempted to be that factual, it was probably a rifle that was in the Prop dept. that looked "real Military"
Nevertheless, I loved John Banner, to me he was the whole show...
It is actually amazing he played the part as he was an Austrian Jew that had his family pretty much eliminated by the Nazi's.

One of my favorite shows, currently in reruns again locally!

I was watching Kelly's Heroes the other day and one othe characters in the squad carried a Moisen Sniper rifle. I'm pretty sure there weren't any American troops carrying those in WW II. I'm pretty sure that lots of the American soldiers in some of the larger scenes requiring lots of extras were carrying Mausers. And I know for a fact the Germans in that movie were carrying Yugo 48s.

Of course, the movie was made in Yugoslavia in the 1970s so I guess that is to be expected. Still, it is a little surprising to see a Moisen sniper shown so prominently.

If you want to see something disturbing,go rent the film about Bob Crane,"Auto Focus".

He was one sick puppy.

WB.

Got the whole series on DVD. I've watched so many times I've got them all memorized.

First, I'm sure Hollywood used whatever was available such as the 105 self-propelled howitzer for a tiger tank and all the American trucks for German trucks.

Second, historical the Germans were short on rifles and side arms in WWII so they used whatever was available from each country to took over. They also salvaged every allied vehicle they could for their own use so the use of American and British trucks for German use in the series is not unlikely.

I saw that movie Bandit and you are right. If only a tenth of that movie is accurate it was scary. After listening to Crane's wife in the series interviews I would have to say "Auto Focus" is probably somewhat accurate.

I watched the heavily edited version on TV.I had to turn it off.Don't think I could make it through ten minutes of the DVD version.

WB.

IIRC, there were a few times the Allies used captured German equipment in action as well...

Painted over the German insignia, and painted on VERY LARGE Allied insignia- especially on top, for aircraft ID.

Tigers and trucks come to mind, tho for the life of me I can't remember what history I read this in. A long, long,long time ago.

I like my history to be "accurate" as well when being "entertained" by hollyweird, which is why I hate any John Woo flick (Windtalkers, and Pearl Harbor, among others).

You accuracy buffs might find it interesting that the Swiss Air Force operated a few former-Luftwaffe JU-52's into the eighties! I have no idea how the Swiss acquired those planes, but had heard the old Ford-Tri-Motors were solid 'ships' as well.

That's very had to believe. His rifle, every time I've seen it, was a Mauser 98.

I also seem to remember a picture of him as a young man fighting against the nazis

They use to pick on old Sgt Shultz, till they thought the War was over and the local arms factory would be come a Toy Factory again and guess who owned it? Good old 'Sgt Shultz and Klink and the Gestopo guy and the cartoon general was all sucking up for jobs. One of the Actors in that one was in one of the Consentration Camps. Werner Kempler family had to leave. It was a funny show but it was meant to be funny, there was nothing of what prison camps were like for the Allies in Germany or what it was like for the German is Soviet prisons or Americans Brits Aussies and New Zelanders in the hands of Imperial Japan.

Allied POW camps, particullarly those for aircrew weren't all tha bad as those sorts of things go. Americans, Brits, and other Westerners were treated fairly well according to the Geneva Convention. Give Herman Goering some credit. He stood firm and demanded that the Luftwaffe be in charge of the POW camps for Allied aircrew. That saved a lot of men from being interned in SS run camps.

Had a friend of my Dad's growing up who was a co-pilot of a B-24 and his second mission was the oil raid on Ploesti. Didn't work too well for him and he spent the rest of the war in a Romanian POW camps. Said it could have been a lot worse and indeed the quarters were better than what he had in North Africa.

He did have a 30-40 Kreg at least in the early shows. They also used Thompson sub-machine guns is many of the early episodes which makes historical sense as the Germans had as well as had access to truck loads of Thompsons. The Germans also had access to truck loads of 1911's too and used them quite a lot WWII.

What's so strange about a POW guard having a Krag? Run a Google search for "Nazi Krag" and you will find that Germany used Krags as substitute rifles for non-line units. What could be more appropriate than issuing them to guards at a POW camp inside Germany?

Of course that doesn't explain the episode where a drunken Schultz is guarding Hogan's boys with an MP40 that suddenly becomes a Thompson from a different camera angle, then reverts back.

Stryker60

Norway, used Krags. The NAZIs invaded Norway and confiscated Norwegian weapons, so I guess it could have happened.

Even today, troops use whatever gets the job done...

Just because it's a Kraig, does not mean it's a .30-40! It could have been 8X58rimmed, or 6.5X55 as well.

Dan

Dan C.. You are right on the caliber. I could only go from personal experience with the Krag rifle. I looked it up and sure enough it was chambered in other rounds as well.
I mostly commented because it is shear luck I spotted the Krag on Sgt Shultz's shoulder. It was so apparent as you could see the lever/thumb peice or whatever nomenclature is correct on the side of the box magazine that opened to load or top off rounds. The scene had Hogan and Shultz facing the camera so the magazine was clearly visible. I also believe that may weapons from both sides found their way into combat from the "other side" I guess I was just expecting to see a 98 Mauser. Then again, as I said, it is Holly weird.

Pugs, wasn't the Ploesti 'raid' actually a campaign to destroy the Romanian refineries? Also there was one or two B-24's that missed their navigation back to their northern Africa air base/s that stranded their crew/s in the desert to die long lingering deaths when no rescue came (Lady Be Good and Strawberry Bitch are the two 'ships' I remember). Are you knowlkedageable of the details regarding their fates?

I always thought the 6.5x55 in a Krag action was a little dangerous due to the one locking lug.

But IIRC,the Krag was built around that round,so I guess the old time 6.5 ammo was pretty low pressure.

WB.