You must be reading from the current revised history textbooks now mandated by leftist run education system.
I'm really surprised Ol' Herm didn't carry a German made sidearm as his EDC piece.
There was a lot of German Pride stuff going on over there back then, and we can all agree, they did produce many excellent quality firearms.
Did Herm really believe the S&W revolver was more reliable than anything the Germans made at the time ?
Serious question.
Were talking about a guy that owned thousands of guns.
Was the American made gun so revered that he'd risk what could have easily been seen as an insult to Germany ?
Pissing off the Fuhrer isn't good for ones health.
So granted that's what he trusted his own life to, I get it, and he has good taste, because they are great revolvers, but his caliber choice doesn't make any sense.
Why didn't he carry one chambered in .45 ???
That would be the biggest advantage you could have over an easily found German handgun, they didn't make much of anything bigger than 9mm, and he had some good choices available too. The P35 and the P38 immediately come to mind.
Few things:
*The .38 on display was the gun he surrendered to US troops to with. The act of formal surrender inherently involves handing over a weapon. Are you going to hand over an exquisite gold-engraved Luger or a rather plain gun? There would be a high probability that the US soldier who met him would simply pocket the gun. Whatever he handed over, he would lose. In the world before Nuremberg, it wouldn't be inconceivable that he would be able to eventually live a quiet life in exile, like Kaiser Wilhem II did in the Netherlands until his death in 1941. So why hand over a pristine gun that you're just going to lose?
*Why no BHP or P38? They wouldn't have really been available for commercial sale. The BHP came out in 1935 but probably didn't hit gun shop store shelves until a year or so later. Plus the Belgians wouldn't probably be too excited to sell guns to top Nazi brass, considering what happened to Belgium in WW1. Of course, Goering could've stolen or been presented either gun. But, if Goering had an inherent trust of revolvers, he probably wouldn't be eager to abandon his S&W in favor of a brand new, then-untested semi-auto.
*Why no .45ACP? Only revolver available in .45ACP would be the M1917 and those were largely kept in the US and South America. Besides, concealability - what's easier to conceal, a .38 or a .45ACP 1917? Why no 1911 or Webley? He was a Nazi, that's just wrong from both points of view.
*Goering was primarily an aristocratic "hunter", such as boar and European deer, and at the time, a revolver for finishing off game was more common. Using a BHP or a P38 would probably be considered "unsporting."
*Goering was a morbidly obese drug addict and not getting into any actual combat, so that eliminates any practical need for a combat handgun like a Webley, 1911, P38, P08, C96, BHP, etc. What would be more likely would be a Waffen SS coup d'etat led by Goering's rival Himmler. In a situation where your friends are just as deadly as your enemies, concealability and having something that can get you out of a sticky spot is more important than firepower.
*Until Pearl Harbor, the Nazis didn't hate the US. Hitler's personal train was code-named "Amerika" until 1941. Hitler's personal pilot drove a Ford until Hitler gave him a Mercedes. Hitler's foreign policy involved keeping the US out of the war and hopefully convincing the US to join with the Nazis. If the Republicans won in 1940, a more isolationist US would not have been such an inconceivable idea.
*Who did Goering surrender to? The US.
