Originally Posted by Absalom

You‘ll notice that the SCSW avoids mentioning WHEN it was so named.

Actually, there are some indications that S&W marketing did use the term in wartime advertising for the availability of the US version through the DSC; Charles Pate pictures an example in his book.

However, there is no evidence that either the factory itself or any of the end users ever called the revolvers by the Victory name. In S&W documents like invoices, it remained what it had always been, the .38 M&P.

The Victory term only gained traction after the war, in advertisements of the surplus trade and then among collectors.