Captain Michaels

Captain Michaels was a fictional character who appeared in the Hogan's Heroes episode, Anchors Aweigh, Men of Stalag 13. He was played by Michael St. Clair.

Captain Michaels, who is an RAF officer, is an escapee from Stalag 5. He first appears in the episode wearing a German helmet atop his head while inside a German truck, which causes his welcoming committee of Colonel Hogan and Corporal LeBeau, as well as Sergeant Schultz, who had followed the pair to the rendevous point, to duck beside the road where they were to meet Michaels, thinking that Michaels was a German. After he has stopped the truck, Michaels removes the helmet, thus revealing his true identity, which causes both Hogan and LeBeau to get back up and to approach the truck, soon followed by a disbelieveing Schultz. After he gets out of the truck, Michaels says hello to both Hogan and LeBeau, before apologizing for surprising them with the truck, as he has taken it during the confusion caused by his escape. Michaels then notices Schultz, thinking at first that he is also a member of Hogan's group, dressed up as a German soldier, until Hogan informs him that he was indeed a German soldier, which surprises him. Michaels then informs Hogan that he had discovered something in the back of the truck that might interest London. He next shows them his discovery, a gunsight which uses a computer to track airplanes. Michaels suggests that they take one part of it into camp, instead of making blueprints, and sending it on to London. Hogan instead suggests that they take the whole gunsight with them, and send it on to England with him, after they have first gotten him into the camp, which Michaels quickly agrees to. Before they leave the truck behind, Michaels comments that he thought that the entire situation is a bit hard to believe, before he hears Schultz agree with him.

Michaels is next mentioned when both Schultz and Hogan are inside Klink's office, and the Kommandant asks Hogan, to Schultz's horror, if he knew of a Captain Michaels. Hogan claims that he did, unitl he mentions that the Michaels he is talking about was a female, much to Klink's disgust, and Schultz's relief, as the Michaels whom Klink was talking about had a mustache. Klink then mentions that Michaels had escaped from one of the other camps, before claiming that he would never had been able to escape if he had been in charge of Stalag 5, which Hogan knew to be false. Klink then says that he had received a report which said that Michaels had stolen a truck, and had been seen driving it towards the coast, before disappearing somewhere near the camp, before he adds that he believes that Michaels is somwhere in the vicinity and that he is going to search for him, starting with finding the truck. He then says that he is going to put Schultz in charge of finding the truck, which geta an exchange of looks between both Hogan and Schultz, since the two both know what have actually happened to the truck that Michaels had stolen. Later, inside the tunnel, Michaels is with the heroes, as they contact London, trying to arrange a pickup of both Michaels and the gunsight. He hears, along with them, that London would be unable to send a sub to pick him up, because it would be out of commission for a while, and that they would have to come up with their own way to get him back to England, which Hogan acknowledges. This produces a series of comments and questions from both Michaels and the other heroes, as they quickly remind Hogan what they presently face both inside and outside the camp's fence. Hogan calls his men small-minded before leaving the scene ends.

Michaels stays inside the tunnel while Hogan tricks Klink into building an officer's club, before convincing him to place LeBeau in charge of the prison camp's guards who would be building the club. But, in reality, the guards would actually be building a boat, that would later be used by Michaels to sail back to England with the gunsite. After Hogan is able to convince Klink him that he make more of an impression with a Yacht club, and then after placing food onto it for a party that Klink is planning to hold, along with a large box, within which is hidden the gunsight, Hogan next tricks Klink into getting rid of the boat, via having a story told to Klink by Carter on Burkhlater's previous (false) reaction upon seeing a fancy looking officer's club back at Stalag 5. Klink then tells Hogan to get rid of the boat, with Hogan suggesting to Klink that it should be taken out to sea, and released. After the boat is placed upon a trailer that is attached to a truck, a life raft (within which is hiden Captain Michaels) is placed onto the boat, which is then taken out of the camp by a German squad, under Klink's orders.

Towards the end of the episode, as Klink sees off an angry Burkhalter, whom he had earlier invited, expecting to show off to him the now gone yacht, thanks to Carter's phoney tale, he tells Hogan, who had come back into camp driving the truck that Michaels had driven in at the start of the episode, claiming that he had found it during a garbage detail, that he believes that this proves that Michaels is still in the area, and that he is going to capture him. Hogan agrees with him, all the while knowing that, in reality, Michaels should already be back in England with the captured gunsight.