When Newkirk discovers a new radio-controlled tank that could win the war for Germany, the allies want Hogan and the men to photograph the tank and then destroy it - but complications ensue ... Read allWhen Newkirk discovers a new radio-controlled tank that could win the war for Germany, the allies want Hogan and the men to photograph the tank and then destroy it - but complications ensue during their mission.When Newkirk discovers a new radio-controlled tank that could win the war for Germany, the allies want Hogan and the men to photograph the tank and then destroy it - but complications ensue during their mission.
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- TriviaThe Germans did have radio-controlled "mini-tanks" which were essentially boxes with tank tracks that carried explosives capable of destroying a tank or some defensive positions. The Goliath tracked mine - complete German name: Leichter Ladungsträger Goliath (Goliath Light Charge Carrier) - was a name given to two German Unmanned ground vehicles.
- GoofsLeBeau has to get into the tank and run it because the control box has been removed, but after he gets out, the tank continues to maneuver although there is no one controlling it.
- Quotes
General der Infanterie Albert Burkhalter: I see no reason why Colonel Hogan shouldn't watch a demonstration of German efficiency.
Col. Wilhelm Klink: But, But this is classified, General.
General der Infanterie Albert Burkhalter: He isn't going anywhere with the information, is he?
Col. Wilhelm Klink: Of course not! No one has ever escaped from Stalag 13.
General der Infanterie Albert Burkhalter: So you have told me... and told me... and told me!
- ConnectionsEdited into Hogan's Heroes: Bombsight (1969)
What is eyebrow-raising about the scene isn't that German guard Schultz discovered prisoner of war Newkirk not only outside the camp but clearly dressed as a commando--that's standard farce for "Hogan's Heroes," which assumes that bungling Germans such as Schultz and camp commandant Colonel Klink are completely clueless about the prisoners' shenanigans or else deny their existence. Rather, the eyebrow shoots up because it occurs in a story credited to Laurence Marks, the one series writer who consistently treated the premise of an Allied intelligence and sabotage unit operating covertly from inside a German prisoner-of-war camp as more than just a springboard for Sixties sitcom silliness.
More typical of Marks is what Newkirk saw--apart from the pretty blonde girl--while having a look round (as they'd say back in his native England) outside camp: a German remote-controlled mini-tank. And when, in another standard "Hogan's Heroes" contrivance, the Germans testing the tank, after its performance seems to have been affected by an Allied bombing raid, decide to continue their testing at Stalag 13, under the premise that the Allies wouldn't knowingly bomb their own men interned in a POW camp, of course unit leader Colonel Hogan becomes determined to examine this new German weapon (with its basis in fact, as the Germans did use single-mission unmanned ground vehicles, nicknamed Goliaths, that delivered high explosives against the Allies in combat) and report his findings back to headquarters in London.
From there, "Tanks for the Memory" proceeds more or less with Marks's usual narrative tidiness even if some of the humor is more overly broad than his typical wit. Indeed, this enjoyable distraction delivers its comical payload with practiced efficiency, helped along by Gene Reynolds's lean, effective direction, as a generic "Hogan's Heroes" shaggy dog anyone could have written. Even Laurence Marks.
- darryl-tahirali
- Mar 19, 2022