Personnal handguns of famous WW2 leaders.

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

AXIS:

Adolf Hitler: Der Fuehrer packed everytime a Walther PPK pistol cal.7,65mm (.32 auto) in the pocket of his uniform jacket....he used it at least once for capture a man who tried an attempt against his life in 1943
(read Eva Braun's diary): Eva and Adolf where relaxing in Berchtesgaden...Adolf was driving himself his car,with no bodyguards... a shot entered the glass shield.Adolf stopped the car and jumped with his PPK in hand ...soon after he comebacked with a man hands up....he put the man in the car,gave the PPK to Eva Braun to aim at the man and drived back the car,saying ''it's twice this year !''...Interrogated by the SS,it was obvious the man was alone and commited the attempt in ''solo'',he was executed pretty soon...
Comebacking with Hitler's PPK,this is the gun he used to commit suicide,as it is well known.

Hermann Goering : The Reichsmarschall was an avid hunter and gun-lover
so he had looooooots of hunting rifles and pistols....i know the firm Kriegshoff presented him with a beautiful Luger P-08,9mm,4'' barrel.
A collector have this gun today and it is worth $ 30,000
But is most favorite gun,the one he packed everyday was an american Smith & Wesson ,.38 special revolver (look at the picture and you will see Goering with a typical revolver holster)

Adolf Eichmann : He packed in Argentina a 1906 Luger,cal.7,65 Parabellum (not to be confused with the 7,65mm aka .32 auto !)
I don't know why he didn't packed it the day the israelis agents rapted him !!????? Fact is : this very gun was presented ,years after that,by an argentine colonel to a guy i know,who is an american military,son of a german officer of the Heer,exiled in Argentine.This gun was stolen in Miami,some years ago, the man called me and gave me the serial number of this gun ,for me to advise him in case the gun will appear in the country i currently live..... too sad i lost this serial number .....

Heinrich Himmler : For the pictures,we always see Himmler with a Luger Holster at the belt.I don't know if regulation gun or personnal one...

R.Heydrich: Same for Heydrich wich involved in a shooting with a czech resistant during the attempt against his life in 1942...wich he did with his Luger P-08 ... regulation or personnal weapon ???????

Benito Mussolini : In the firsts years of the fight for power,the Duce kept on his desk an italian Glisenti revolver 11mm and a handgrenade (!)
(see picture ...) ... i guess he switched to a more concealable automatic once he took power.... but the Glisenti was pretty powerful !

Alessandro Pavolini: General secretary of Republican Fascist Party of the RSI and supreme commander of the Black Brigades,packed a Model 1934 Beretta 9mm short (.380 auto)...i don't know if regulation one or personnal one.

Duke Amedeo of Aosta,Viceroy of Ethiopia,had a pronounced taste for beautiful personnal weapons....see the picture of his Beretta Model 1934,9mm short (380),golden platted and handcarved.

ALLIED :

Winston Churchill: As a young british officer during the Boer War,Churchill saved his life once thanks to his beloved -and personnal- german made Mauser 1896 ,cal.7,63 Mauser

general Patton: Everybody knows Patton packed always two Colt Peacemaker single action revolvers and ,as a back -up , a Colt .380 pistol.
There is a controversy about the calibers of the Peacemaker ; some sources stated they were .45 Long Colt ....... others says Patton bought two very scarce samples of Peacemaker made by Colt in the then new caliber (after 1935) .357 Magnum ........ maybe a reader may give us the definitive answer ?

Leon Trotsky : When Lev Davidovich Bronstein,aka ''Leon Trotsky'', in exile in Mexico was murdered in 1940 by his secretary (in fact an NKVD agent) by order of Stalin,he had on his night table two handguns : a Browning cal.25 (aka 6,35mm) and a Colt snubby revolver cal.38

Fulgencio Battista : The dictador of Cuba ,who entered the war along the USA, had as personnal gun a handcarved and golden-platted spanish made Astra 400 cal.9mm.(today in Museo de la Revolucion in La Habana)

general Somoza: The nicaraguan dictador who sided with the allied too,loved the Colt 1911 cal.45 ACP........ but he was presented by Franklin Roosevelt two Colt Peacemaker single action (like the ones of Patton),cal:.45 long Colt, golden-platted and kept them in permanence on his desk...like Mussolini did.....( Roosevelt said from him :'' He is a son of a bitch,but he is OUR son of a bitch !'')

PLEASE any reader may feel free to add the personnal handguns of others famous leaders or generals... for instance i'm interested to know what favorite guns were the ones of Josef Stalin,Joseph Darnand,Ante Pavelic, SS generals like Sepp Dietrich,Theodor Eicke,Schellenberg,''Gestapo-Mueller'',etc.... ant -why not ?- the Grand Mufti !! ??

Pics : a) the Beretta pistol of Viceroy of Ethiopia,Duke Amedeo of Aosta.
b) the desk of Mussolini when he founded the Fascii da Combatimenti....
look down at the right :the Glisenti revolver and the handgrenade...
c) After his liberation from Gran Sasso ,Mussolini is received by Hitler at the Wolfschanze... we recognize Admiral Doenitz, SS general Fegelein,Martin Bormann...and Hermann Goering with an holster for his Smith & Wesson 38 spl revolver.

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

AXIS:

Lucien Rebatet,french collaborationnist writer and journalist,author of ''Les decombres'',packed a french made Ruby pistol cal.7,65mm (.32 auto) with german permit.
(Sentenced to death and jailde after the war.Sentence commuted.Will write ''Memories of a Fascist''. By April 1st 1944 he participated with bravado at the ''Great Dinner of the Sentenced to Death'' organized in Paris by the Arian Circle where most of the 1142 collaborationnists already sentenced to death by the gaullist comitee of Algiers,reactionned with class and humor.)

[varjag]

I think it was in Deutscher's biography of Stalin, there is mention of Stalin having a .357 Magnum, Smith & Wesson handy - at most times. May have been at the dacha, may have been in his Kremlin apartment, forgotten the detail. Re. Hitler I think his valet, Heinz Linge testified that the pistol that he carried at most times wasn't the .32 Walther but a small .25 Walther 'in a small special pocket, sewn into his trousers'.

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

Hi Varjag....thanks for the info on Stalin..... it's funny because Brejnev too packed a 357 magnum ..... about Adolf ,since i am positive he packed everytime a .32 PPK .that means he packed two guns (like i do),like everybody who knows about guns ( one may jam...we call that a ''back up'') or everybody who feel in danger.

[Ike_FI]

From http://www.mannerheim.fi:

As a soldier Mannerheim had good knowledge of weapons.
He always carried a pistol with him. The following pistols he used can now be found in museums: Parabellum artillery pistol m/1914 (9 mm), and FN pistol m/1910 (7,65 mm).

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

Thanks finn comrade....keep posting guys !

[Douglas Jr.]

Hi Charlemagne,

It was told me that Göring´s revolver (a S&W) is nowadays in display at West Point Museum.

GETÚLIO VARGAS, dictator that ruled Brazil between 1930-1945, declare war against Germany and sent 25,000 troops to fight in Italy, has a famous pisture shooting a Colt Woodsman pistol (I´ll try to find it and post it here). When he commit suicide, in 1954, he used a Colt Police Positive in .32 S&W Long.

HEINZ GUDERIAN, even as a General, was always using his standard Luger P-08 in 9mm Parabellum. The same goes for Admiral ERICH RAEDER, who kept his Navy Luger M1908 (with 6" barrel, adjustable sights for 100-200 mts) since 1917 until 1945.

Wishes,

Douglas.

[freiwillige]

Hello,

Adolf Hitler owned two pistols: one PPK .32 and one Walther Model 8 in 6.35 mm. Only in Poland (1939), visiting the front carried a pistol openly (see photo).

[freiwillige]

the photo

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

Thanks Douglas,i didn't know all these interesting infos....i guess it's just what this forum is all about !

Gracias camarada ''Voluntario''.....this is the first pic i ever saw of Adolf packing a holster !

¡ ARRIBA ESPAÑA !

[Douglas Jr.]

Hi,

Here is the picture of GETÚLIO VARGAS and the Colt Woodsman.

Charlemagne, this site is really great to share pictures that you wouldn´t see elsewhere.

Regards,

Douglas.

[freiwillige]

Another one! Ahí va otra.
Hitler in Poland, sept.1939

[freiwillige]

Hi again,

About Winston Churchill, I find this text on the Internet:

"The subject is what guns Winston Churchill owned
during the Great War - and of course before and after.

I know "his" Broomhandle Mauser is in one glass case
and there are three photos of him with a gun which are
available from the Imperial War Museum, two of him
inspecting a tommy gun belonging to some Home Guards
up North and one with a open ('broken') 12-bore on his
forearm.

However, I have a memory of seeing a photo of him in
front of a full gun-rack at Chartwell and another
behind an extensive collection of mostly semi-auto
pistols in a tilted display case. The photos were in a
gun publication from just post-WW2 and the guns were
his. Also from that memory that he had a number of
full-auto Thompsons for estate work, which is what
they were being sold for in the USA. And that one of
those Thompsons he kept in a baize-lined compartment
which was built into a drawer's place in his desk in
his bunker. Also from that time, a PPK kept in his
pocket. Can anyone recall from Jack Le Vien's "The
Valiant Years" anything about Churchill practising
with a Thompson and a Colt M1911 .45ACP?

I also recall him in Singapore in 1953 with two
double-action .44 magnum (NOT .44 S&W Magnum)
revolvers in his trouser/coat pockets and a .38 Webley
Bulldog. A total of 45lbs of body armour and weapons.

I also recall a number of reports of his irritation
with the description of him as a "little man with a
pot belly and a fat arse" - which was actually his
45lbs of armour and guns. Also that he was of medium
height for his year at school.

I also remember that during the Great War, and of
course before and after it, officers usually wore
cloth vests with steel panels sewn into pockets in
them and these were of some sophistication with
variable-sized plates to give flexibility and extra
protection where necessary. Several "Marks" of such
vests were available and bespoke and off-the-peg body
armour was available in London. Also metal-lined
uniform caps.

I've had confirmation of some of the body-armour items
from Wilkinson Sword's mini-museum in London (they
used to make them), but I'd be interested to hear more
on the subject. Particularly, it has been asserted to
me that when Winston Churchill was commissioned he
would have had to purchase his own sidearm and
presumably the Broomhandle Mauser was it? My own
recollection is that British Army officers were issued
with regulation sidearms from 1850 on."

[freiwillige]

More.
About Patton's handguns:

http://www.pattonhq.com/unknown/chap05.html

Hasta luego.

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

Douglas,Freiwillige (conoces tu la marcha ''Los Voluntarios'' ??),thanks for the postings.......

I fired some Colt Woodsman in my life ...a friend of mine here is a Colt Woodsman collector,he owns four ,incluiding a stainless steel one ....
i'm not a fan of small calibers ,and the only .22 i like are the S&W 2214,the Ruger Mark II ...and the Woodsman...by the way both are great to fix them some expendable ,''caseros'',silencers... maybe i will buy one ,somedays.
I saw ,once, a pic of Churchill with a Thompson smg....did't know it was his personal one... yes,he did buy the Broomhandle .