Biggest Continuity Goof

This has been beaten to death. I have no problem with the change.

Potter had arrived on 11/17/52, about 10 months before the end of the Korean War. I highly doubt anyone in their wildest dreams thought that the show would last as long a it did. I suspect that they thought that the show might last till season 7, but it just kept going and stayed popular, especially for a show going into it's 9 season, with a 10th season in the works. Henry had been there for 3 seasons for over 2 years of war. Not a good balance.

Potter was going into his 6th season, twice as long as Henry(episode wise), and had a long time to go ratings wise. It was getting more than a bit unrealistic that the final 10 months of the war would last for 6+ seasons.


Destroying an empire to win a war is no victory and ending a battle to save an empire is no defeat

Your just going to have to learn to suspend disbelief and separate the real time line of the war from a fictitious TV show.

Was there really a Korean War of which the American forces took part in an invasion of Korea?
Yes.
Is there a book, movie and TV show based on this invasion of American forces which is focused on an Army hospital near enemy lines?
Yes.
Did everything that happens in the TV show actually really happen at an Army hospital in Korea during the war?
Except for wounded coming in, really, really very, very doubtful.
So the producers, directors, script writers and actors are taking liberties, even the timeline, for the TV show compared to the actual invasion and war by American forces in Korea?
Yes.

I know what you are saying and there are heaps of inaccuracies in the show.

The thing is what if they go by actual timeline and found that the war ended before the show was due or the show ended up getting axed before they had time to "end the war" in the show.

Just one of those things, the Vietnam war would have been better as it went longer but that was too close for the time the show was made in, especially for a comedy.

Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.

The biggest goof is the one I call 'The Magic Tent.' In the final episode, a wounded soldier drives his tank into the compound, and it starts drawing enemy fire. Klinger erects a tent over the tank, hoping to fool the enemy into thinking it was gone. But the ruse didn't work, so Hawkeye ran into the tent, and drove the tank out and down to the garbage dump.

Here's the error: The tank that drove INTO camp was an M24 Chaffee light tank. The tank that drove OUT of the camp was an M4 Sherman medium tank. Other than the fact that they're both tanks, they look almost nothing alike.

The only conclusion: Klinger's magic tent changed the Chaffee into a Sherman.

- What are you gonna do, when the world catches on?

One also needs to look at the real history of the war, as I've reiterated time and again. In December 1950, the Chinese had just recently intervened and the UN forces were just starting their long retreat from just south of Manchuria, a retreat which wouldn't end until April some 75-100 miles south of the 38th parallel. It wouldn't be until July that those troops would once again occupy the territory that would allow the 4077th to be stationed near Ouijanbu; so the pilot episode should be reading "1951, 100 years ago."

As for the rest, I guess one can assume that the MASH production team had no more knowledge of when the series would end than the UN-US Far East Command had of when their war would end. At least one was historical and follows a recognized timeline; I can't say the same for the other.

Nothing to lose sleep or count sheep over.