The Witness

Series:	Hogan's Heroes
Episode:	The Witness
Original Airdate:	March 01, 1969
Production Number:	5784-117
Written by:	Richard M. Powell
Directed by:	Marc Daniels
Produced by:	Edward H. Feldman, William A. Calihan & Jerry London

Regular

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
• Marya - Nita Talbot

Guest Stars

• General von Rauscher - Gavin MacLeod
• Illyich Igor Zagoskin - Larry Mann

Synopsis

Hogan faces a startling development: his captors are sending him to America to demand surrender -- with a super weapon supposedly supplied by the Russians.

Story Notes

• This is the one hundred and seventeenth episode of the series, but it is the one hundredth and fifteenth episode to be shown on television and is the twenty-third episode shown for the Fourth Season.

Timeline Notes and Speculations

• This takes place in the fall of 1944. Previous events from The Hostage are mentioned by Schultz. The on-board guidance system for the rocket may have been the same one on which Major Lutz was working in Klink vs. The Gonculator.
• The target of General Rauscher's improved V-2 rocket is the British battleship HMS Duke of York, third vessel of the King George V class. Although it is not stated in the episode, the reason for this was because the Duke of York was responsible for the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst, in the last battleship duel between British and German vessels.

Bloopers

• The faux V-2 rocket and launch gantry fabbed for this episode look nothing like that actually used during the war. Aside from the many technical and trivia issues, the most obvious difference is that the V-2 in this episode is considerably smaller than its real-life counterpart.
• Hogan is the only prisoner to be taken to the rocket base, and says goodbye to his men. But later in the episode, Carter, LeBeau, Kinchloe, and Newkirk are all present on the base wearing German uniforms.

External links

• The Witness at the Internet Movie Database
• The Witness episode capsule at Webstalag 13
• The Hofbrau

Previous episode: The Purchasing Plan

Next episode: The Big Dish