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Smith & Wesson Victory Model
The Smith & Wesson Victory Model was born from yet another request by the U.S. Military (during war time) to supplement their issued sidearms with quickly tooled up civilian handguns. From 1940 - 1942 , before the United States entered WWII, the company sold Smith & Wesson Military & Police revolvers (parkerized and chambered for .38 S&W or 38/200) to both British and British Commonwealth forces (e.g. Australia, Canada, New Zealand). Beginning in 1942, Smith & Wesson placed a "V" in the serial number prefix for "Victory" against the Axis powers and renamed the M&P the Victory Model. When their own supplies of M1911 pistols were stretched, the U.S. Army adopted the Smith & Wesson Victory Model for their own troops.
The failure of the Smith & Wesson Light Rifle M1940 put Smith & Wesson in a difficult situation. The company had been advanced $1,000,000 from the British (approximately $21,000,000 in 2022) and the British wanted the money refunded, but S&W had spent it developing the rifle as well as on other expenses. The company offered the British the equivalent of one million dollars' worth of revolvers instead. Desperate for handguns the British readily accepted and the result was the Smith & Wesson Victory Model in 38/200 caliber. Author Charles Pate in his seminal work U.S. Handguns of World War II writes that S&W produced the 38/200 M&P exclusively from March 1940 to February 1941 when the factory's production capacity was expanded, and the company was able to return to manufacturing 38 Special revolvers as well.
The revolver was given plain wooden grips, a parkerized 'gray' finish, and was chambered for .38 Special. It never replaced the M1911 as the primary side arm of frontline units, but it saw plenty of service as the handgun of secondary or support units. It also saw use with civilian users such as defense plant guards and U.S. Postal Police. It was especially popular with aviators and military dog handlers. Regulations prohibited carry of the M1911 pistol with a live round in the chamber, but one can't drop a dog's leash or fly an aircraft hands-free while one cycles the slide to load a cartridge. Army helicopter pilots continued to use the Victory model until the early 1960s.
After the war, Victory models were given to the German police forces when they were reconstructed during the Allied occupation of Germany. Occasionally, Victory models with "Bavarian Rural Police" and "Bavarian Municipal Police" will surface on the collector market. There is even a (unconfirmed) report that U.S. National Park Service rangers were still being issued Victory models as late as the late 1980s. There are reports that that the British continued to use the revolvers into the 1960s and the Australians into the 1980s.
Specifications
(1942 - 1945)
- Type: Revolver
- Caliber: .38 S&W, .38 Special
- Barrel length(s): 2 in (5.1 cm), 4 in (10.2 cm), 5 in (12.7 cm), 6 in (15.2 cm)
- Capacity: 6-round cylinder
- Fire Modes: SA/DA
Film
Television
| Title | Actor | Character | Notes / Episode | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born by Revolution: Assault (Rozhdyonnaya revolyutsiey: Napadenie) | Evgeniy Zharikov | Nikolay Kondratyev | 1974 | |
| Born by Revolution: On Fire (Rozhdyonnaya revolyutsiey: V ogne) | Evgeniy Zharikov | Nikolay Kondratyev | 1974 | |
| Born by Revolution: We Will Help You (Rozhdyonnaya revolyutsiey: My pomozhem tebe) | Evgeniy Zharikov | Nikolay Kondratyev | 1975 | |
| Baa Baa Black Sheep | Jeff McKay | Lt. Don French | Mother of Pearl K-Frame Grips | 1976 - 1978 |
| Bergerac | Derek Farr | Laurence Mitchell | "Portrait of Yesterday" (S01E06) | 1981 |
| Terence Alexander | Charlie Hungerford | "Last Chance for a Loser" (S01E07) | ||
| Bergerac | Jolyon Baker | DC Barry Goddard | "The Last Interview" (S04E01) | 1985 |
| Wounded Stones (Ranenyye kamni) | Stepan Starchikov | Anton | 1988 | |
| Around the World in 80 Days | A British Army officer | 1989 | ||
| Agatha Christie's Miss Marple | Neal Swettenham | Edgar Lawson | "They Do It with Mirrors" | 1991 |
| Mail Call | 2002 - 2009 | |||
| King Solomon's Mines | Morne Visser | Petre | 2004 | |
| Midsomer Murders | James Richard Marshall | Young Peter Fossett | "Death in the Slow Lane" (S14E1) | 2010 |
| Boardwalk Empire | Jack Huston | Richard Harrow | 2010-Present | |
| Lewis | Mark Aiken | Donald Voss | "The Gift of Promise" (S05E04) | 2011 |
| Supernatural - Season 6 | Peter Ciuffa | H.P. Lovecraft | "Let It Bleed" (S06E21) | 2011 |
| Supernatural - Season 7 | Nicholas Lea | Eliot Ness | "Time After Time" (S07E12) | 2012 |
| Peaky Blinders - Season 2 | various characters | anachronistic | 2014 | |
| Father Brown - Season 5 | Benjamin Fisher | Raymond Worrall | "The Eagle and the Daw" (S05E06) | 2017 |
| Eldorado KaDeWe | Joel Basman | Harry Jandorf | Ep. 01 and 06 | 2021 |
| Martin Bruchmann | Harry's Friend | Ep. 06 | ||
| A German soldier | Ep. 01 |
Video Games
| Title | Appears as | Mods | Notes | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driver: Parallel Lines | 2006 |
See Also
- Smith & Wesson - A list of all firearms manufactured by Smith & Wesson.