Is General Hammerschlag Burning?


Series:	Hogan's Heroes
Episode:	Is General Hammerschlag Burning?
Original Airdate:	November 18, 1967
Production Number:	5784-72
Written by:	Richard M. Powell
Directed by:	Edward H. Feldman
Produced by:	Edward H. Feldman & William A. Calihan

Regular[]

Prisoners[]

Camp Personnel[]

Semi-Regulars[]

None

Guest Stars[]

Synopsis[]

In Paris, Hogan uses an entertainer's friendship with a General and someone who went to high school with Kinchloe as part of a plan to get plans for the defense of Paris.

Story Notes[]

This is the seventy-second produced episode of the series, but is the seventy-third episode to be shown on television and is the eleventh episode shown for the Third Season.
The episode's title alludes to the title of the 1966 war film, Is Paris Burning?.
This is the second and last time that Kinch (not Hogan) gets the girl.
As part of a running gag in the story, Kinch and Hogan's roles are reversed, with Hogan having to play the subordinate in order to achieve their mission.

Timeline Notes and Speculations[]

This episode appears to take place sometime after the Normandy landings in France on June 6, 1944, but before the Liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944.
The fictional General Hammerschlag is filling the part played in real life by General Dietrich von Choltitz. His orders were to put Paris to the torch rather than let it be recaptured by the Allies (hence the title of both the movie and episode). Von Choltitz's plans were foiled by the French underground, who sponsored heavy resistance within Paris itself as the Allied armies approached - even going to far as to capture some German tanks and use them against von Choltitz's forces. Von Choltitz decided to surrender the city peacefully, and was taken into Allied captivity.
The character of Kumasa is loosely based on the real-life torch singer Josephine Baker, who had to leave America (due to her skin color) in order to achieve success. She became famous in Paris between the two World Wars and played an active part in the Resistance; after the war she was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by General De Gaulle.
We get some background on Kinch in this episode. He went to high school in Detroit, Michigan. One of his classmates was Carol Dukes, who would later become Kumasa. Dukes secretly had a crush on Kinch, but he was unaware of it at the time. She was aware of his being drafted into the Army (in 1942?).
When Schultz goes into the barracks to talk to Col. Hogan, he refers to the last time Klink went to Paris, when Hogan and LeBeau also rode on the roof of the staff car, in the two-part episode, "A Tiger Hunt In Paris".

Quotes[]

Bloopers[]

When Carol Dukes/Kumasa sees Kinch in her dressing room, she identifies him as "Ivan Kinchloe". In Request_Permission_to_Escape, Kinch's first name is revealed to be "James."
At different points in the story Kinch and Kumasa say "Keep the faith, baby!" This phrase was associated with Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. - in the 1960s. It is unlikely to have been in common use in the 1940s.

External links[]

Is General Hammerschlag Burning? at the Internet Movie Database
Is General Hammerschlag Burning? episode capsule at Webstalag 13
The Hofbrau

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One in Every Crowd

Next episode:
A Russian Is Coming