Introduction

Hi, dear readers,

thank you for clicking on this story. Those of you, who are readers of my Star-Trek-story "A second chance" and have a peek on the story because I informed you of this project, please do not fear that I abandoned the other writing. As I already let you know I've run out of spare time in the moment and will re-start writing hopefully during the following autumn. Yet, to shorten the wait, I decided to publish this story I've on my PC for years now, but never had the nerve to put it online.

Like before, my dear beta-reader Kat will have a closer look on my writing. For my new readers: English isn't my 'mother-tongue' and thank the Lord that Kat smooths out my errors.

As said, I wrote this story a few years ago after "Hogan's Heroes" ran once again on TV, and it caught me more than the first time I saw it in the beginning of the 90s as it ran for the first time in Germany – with big success, and today the show has a lot of fans here in my country. So, logical conclusion, yes, I'm German and I really love how the show displays everything as big comedy, but also broaches sincere subjects and that there is still a dark danger beneath everything, which keeps the tension up. After all, there are so many episodes in which Hogan and the others are about to be caught, revealed or undergo mortal danger during their operations, you cannot help but have to share the thrill the 'Heroes' face. Also, I always loved the brotherhood between the 'Heroes', the dry humor of the way many German officers were exaggeratedly shown, and the way the 'Heroes' always outsmarted their opponents.

Yet I loved the bantering between Hogan and Klink the most, and I often thought they just sounded like an old married couple – both trying to trump each other out, yet with an odd kind of sympathy that grows over the years. I also loved that Hogan not always won the arguments, or (the other way around) that Klink realized that he couldn't outmatch Hogan in a special case and tried to gain victory with a certain way of cleverness (yet mostly failed – *snicker*). I also liked it a lot that always, before a situation became too hairy, Hogan was there to save Klink. And a few times Klink even grew a backbone and defied Hochstetter, Burkhalter and other men to keep safe those who were his responsibility. From time to time Klink showed why he was called the 'Iron Eagle' during WW I, and this – added with the obvious sympathy between him and Hogan – one day gave me the idea for this story. What, if Klink's feelings for his American counterpart were far more serious than shown on the outside, and it made him outgrow himself when Hogan really needed rescue?

Like you certainly already assume, this is a slash-story, with slow development, a lot of action, hurt, angst (violenc), but also yearning, realization of feelings, tenderness, love (and more). I know, it's slightly AU, yet I tried to stay true to the characters. One guy, who gave Hogan and his men problems on regular base was Major Hochstetter of the Gestapo. The actor Howard Caine portraited this character in a way you really could believe that Hochstetter deeply and truly hated Hogan – last but not least because Hogan was one of the few men who didn't bent to his malic behavior and evil threats. This will be the reason for Hogan being in need for help for once, and for Klink of outgrowing himself.

A little information concerning the time-frame, locations and the way the characters address each other and speak.

I know that in the TV-show Hammelburg was originally placed somewhere near Düsseldorf and not too far away from Berlin. Well, the two cities are approx. 450 km apart. So, where ever the fictional Stalag 13 was located, it could never be in closer range of both towns. The real Hammelburg lies, like most of you certainly know by now, in North-Bavaria. The original Stalag XIII C was placed there, as well as other military facilities. This, the fact that in 'Hogan's Heroes' the winters are shown cold, snowy and long, and that there are higher hills around Hammelburg which even allow an avalanche, makes it clear that the TV-Stalag 13 can't be placed in the Rhine-area or near Berlin. I'm from Düsseldorf – and believe me, the winters we've snow (and had snow in the past) high enough to be counted on the fingers of two hands.

Therefore, I placed the whole location in my story at the real area around Hammelburg (by the way, I know the little town from several visits and can therefore describe the outlay for real).

The next thing is the way the people address each other. In German it's usual and simply polite, not to address another one as only 'Leutnant' or 'Major' but as 'Herr Leutnant' or 'Herr Major' – which translated means, you call someone 'Mr. Lieutenant' and so on. The 'Herr /Mr.' is dropped the moment you're adding the family name to the title, means 'Herr Major' or 'Major Hochstetter'. I integrated this in the story to give it a more 'real' touch. I also use the German officer titles when referring to the guys or when other Germans address each other, only Hogan and his men are continuing to address f. e. Klink as 'Colonel Klink'. I also added a few Bavarian typical curses or dictums concerning Sergeant / Feldwebel Schultz, but do not fear, I translated it (as good as possible; mind you. Bavarian is sometimes difficult to translate even in German standard *smile*).

The time-frame was another challenge. I wanted to place it near the end of the war because that's important for the story. Knowing that the episodes were produced in non-chronological sequence, I did some research. A big help was the site .com that shows a list of the episodes ordered not by production-date but by hints at which year and months during WW II they were staged. Therefore, my story begins a few days after 'Look at the pretty snowflakes' that was placed at the 04th January 1945. The next missions were placed at the beginning of February and continued for a few weeks until the liberating of Stalag 13 at the end of April 1945. And in the weeks between 'Pretty snowflakes' and the last missions, a lot of changes happens in the POW-camp – and especially with Klink and also Hogan.

One thing about Kinchloe: Because of the not chronical order of the episode's production, Kinch seems to appear 'til the end of WW II, while in truth Ivan Dixon never did the 6th season. I decided to go with the chronical list, therefore Kinch is still a part of Hogan's mission, but Baker has also his appearances.

I do hope you're going to like it.

So, enough of the prologue.

As always needed, here the disclaimer that goes for the whole story: I do not owe 'Hogan's Heroes' and the mentioned originally characters, and I've written this story out of fun and not to earn money with it. The new characters are mine and shall not be used by third parties. Because of the partly sinister topics – physically and mentally violence – and the scenes of love-making this story is not qualified for readers under 18 years!

And now, have fun – and I would love to get some feedback.

Love

Yours Starflight