Why are they interested in you?

"Why are the Germans so interested in you? Besides the obvious." Colonel Hogan asked.

Kathy Pruitt started.

"I have no idea Colonel. We were doing our act for this infantry outfit when there was a German attack. We jumped into a Jeep and we think we're headed back to headquarters."

"And the next thing we know, we were in this base. Surrounded by German soldiers." Ginger Wilson replied. "But we weren't touched in any way. A short German officer told us in English that he would shoot any soldier who dared to put their hands on us."

"Although they were ready to try…they were very fresh." added Charlene Hensley.

Kathy Pruitt completed the story.

"Lots of tanks and trucks. Soldiers in camouflage uniforms. Some were in dressed in black. It was scary Colonel."

"Their caps had skulls on them. I did notice that they had this odd thing on the collars of their uniform. Like 2 lightning bolts. A lot of them had cuff bands on the left sleeve of their uniform. Some German writing I can't read. And the next thing you know, some Germans in plainclothes brought us here. That Captain Heinrich isn't a pleasant man. An awful den. mother."

Soldiers in camouflage and black uniforms with skulls and lightning bolts? Tanks? Lightning bolts? Cuff bands with German writing.

"The SS! " Hogan exclaimed.

"Social Security, I pay them taxes," replied Charlene Hensley.

"No dear, not Social Security. The SS are Hitler's bodyguards. Like in the old newsreels. The guys wearing black." Kathy Pruitt tried to explain to the naive adagio dancer.

Charlene Hensley, Ginger Wilson, and Kathy Pruitt had stumbled into a forward base of the 1st SS-Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Along with its sister unit the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hiterjugend.

And that was why the Germans were so interested in them. Besides their attributes of course.

Notes:

I guess our girls wandered in on a base where Waffen-SS units were planning for the Battle of the Bulge. And the 2 Waffen-SS divisions mentioned here did take part.

The LAH figures prominently in 2 Hogan's Heroes episodes. Hogan's Hofbrau and Praise the Führer and Pass the Ammunition come to mind.

Both the 1st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions wore a cuff band on the left sleeve around the wrist with a facsimile signature of Hitler in Sütterlin script. Hochstetter wears the armband too.

Sütterlin script is distinctive and looks nothing like cursive used in English speaking countries.

I never learned Sütterlin in any of my German classes and modern German cursive adheres to what most countries would use.

Soldiers in German armored divisions during World War 2 wore a distinctive black uniform. Worn by both the regular army and the Waffen-SS. Standartenführer Deutsch of the dud grenade is an example.

The short German officer referenced here is Colonel Jochen Peiper. Infamous for his actions in the Battle of the Bulge, especially at Malmedy.

Peiper spoke good English and could be charming. Even though he was considered a war criminal by virtually every Allied nation in Europe.

Peiper was about 5' 8'' which made him shorter than the typical Waffen-SS officer. The LAH required that their recruits be at least 5' 10."

The actress who played Ginger Wilson seemed pretty tall to me and may have been taller than the real life Peiper. Especially in heels.

Gestapo serving in Germany wore plain clothes. Those black uniforms (manufactured by Hugo Boss BTW) shown in HH are parade uniforms and were generally not worn after 1939. So Captain Heinrich doesn't wear a uniform here.

An anacronism here. Kathy Pruitt doesn't seem to know about SS uniforms in the beginning, but then explains to Charlene Hensley about the SS not being Social Security. It's Hogan's Heroes, so credulity is often stretched. Don't call me out on it.

No rockets involved. My redo seems more plausible. Since German rockets were fired from mobile launchers or in the case of the V-1 fired from a stationary ramp, not underground.

An underground rocket base implies a rocket factory in real life. With slave laborers. Charlene, Ginger, and Kathy would have been shot on the spot by the Gestapo/SS if they stumbled onto such a place. As that was absolutely confidential information that was not revealed until after the war.

I may use too many German references at times, but it makes my stories more authentic.