Crittendon's Commandos


Series:	Hogan's Heroes
Episode:	Crittendon's Commandos
Original Airdate:	March 20, 1970
Production Number:	5784-144
Written by:	Bill Davenport
Directed by:	Edward H. Feldman
Produced by:	Edward H. Feldman, William A. Calihan & Jerry London

Regular[]

Crittendon is the only one to avoid capture when he and his commandos parachute into the area during a mission to capture Rommel.

This is the one hundred and forty-fourth episode of the series, but is the one hundred and forty-third episode shown on television and the twenty-fifth episode shown for the Fifth Season.
A famous National Football League player is mentioned in the episode: Red Grange.
"Got your cricket" is a D-Day reference, made famous by several memorable scenes in The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan.
Carter quotes "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe when he hears Crittendon rapping on the tunnel periscope.
This is the first episode in which Crittendon expresses genuine remorse for doing something stupid.
This is the only time we see Crittendon don a German uniform. He refused to do it while a POW, due to Geneva Convention rules. He appears to be wearing one of Schultz's old uniforms, due to the helmet with the scratched eagle that we see in earlier episodes of the series.
General Burkhalter has had Klink's entire maintenance staff transferred to bomber service.

This episode takes place in late July or early August of 1944, a few short weeks after the Normandy invasion. Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, commander of German forces at the West Wall, was badly injured on July 17, 1944 when his staff car was strafed by Allied fighters. Had the series stayed to the real World War II timeline the preceding episode would have been "D-Day at Stalag 13" 6 June 1944 and the following episode would have been "Operation Briefcase" 20 July 1944.
- SPECULATION: This happens almost definitely after "Operation Briefcase." It took Rommel a long time to recover from his wounds, in fact after he was allowed to kill himself by Hitler in October of that year they blamed it upon the wounds he had suffered on 17 July. This therefore places this episode most likely in the last week of July 1944.
- Fans of the series may be interested in knowing that Rommel was later implicated in the 20 July Plot that is the topic of "Operation Briefcase" which he was arrested for. While his role in the plot has never been completely confirmed, due to the majority of the plotters not surviving and the fact that very little about the plot was written down.

Previous episode:
The Merry Widow

Next episode:
Klink's Escape