The French ordered many S&W M&P copies chambered for their 8mm Lebel ctg. Might be one of those. I haven't seen that issue of the magazine. However, if they said this was a Victory Model, it was sloppy ID and editing. Those M&P copies were Spanish, probably from several firms.

Does anyone recall the old 1950's TV show about Capt. Gallant of the French Foreign Legion? (Portrayed by Buster Crabbe.) I was a kid then, but believe that he used either one of those 8mm copies or a real M&P/Victory Model. The French got a lot of our .30 carbines after WWII and probably, some Victory Models. They also got most of the M-3 Trench Knives, which is why they're fairly unusual here.

If anyone can post pics of that gun in the article, we can probably ID it.