What Time Does the Balloon Go Up?

Prisoners

 * Colonel Hogan - Bob Crane
 * Corporal Louis LeBeau - Robert Clary
 * Corporal Peter Newkirk - Richard Dawson
 * Sergeant James Kinchloe - Ivan Dixon
 * Sergeant Andrew Carter - Larry Hovis

Camp Personnel

 * Kommandant Wilhelm Klink - Werner Klemperer
 * Sergeant Hans Schultz - John Banner

Semi-Regulars

 * Major Wolfgang Hochstetter - Howard Caine

Guest Stars

 * Christopher Downes - Peter Brooks
 * Master Sgt. McMahon - Lincoln Demyan

Synopsis
A basket-weaving and a kite-flying contest are parts of Hogan's plan to transport an agent to England in a balloon.

Story Notes

 * This is the eighty-seventh produced episode of the series, but is the eighty-sixth to be shown on television and the twenty-fourth episode shown for the Third Season.
 * A pack of Parliament cigarettes is transposed over the closing credits.
 * The title is a common military expression, still in use today. "What time does the balloon go up?" comes from World War I, when British artillery sent up a balloon to notify gunners to open fire (The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms). In common parlance, it often indicates the start of hostilities.

Timeline Notes and Speculations

 * Based on the map of the Russian front that Klink has set up on his office, this episode probably takes place in or shortly after January of 1944. Note the salient at Smolensk, where the front bulges outward.

Bloopers

 * During the late night roll call towards the end of the episode, while Schultz is counting the prisoners, Newkirk is seen wearing his winter coat over his typical outfit. The camera then shows Klink in front of his office.  When the view returns to the prisoners, Newkirk is no longer wearing the coat.