In the 90's I bought a Chrome plated Victory Model 38 Special. 4". Ugliest gun I ever had. It was 100 bucks. I gave it to my brother. Legally, of course. Later I read somewhere American WW2 pilots sometimes had thier guns Chromed in the base shops where thier planes were worked on. If true, maybe this was one of them. I'm sure it got pretty humid under a pilot's arm in that cockpit, specially under tense situations. Any truth to this chrome plating during the war that you know of?

In the 90's I bought a Chrome plated Victory Model 38 Special. 4". Ugliest gun I ever had. It was 100 bucks. I gave it to my brother. Legally, of course. Later I read somewhere American WW2 pilots sometimes had thier guns Chromed in the base shops where thier planes were worked on. If true, maybe this was one of them. I'm sure it got pretty humid under a pilot's arm in that cockpit, specially under tense situations. Any truth to this chrome plating during the war that you know of?

Probably not as they would be messing with Gvmt issue, but it's in the realm of possibility.
The hard part is you will never be able to prove it. (or disprove it. )

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

That sounds like a pretty far-fetched story.

I've been around Canadian and US military maintenenace shops for much of my adult life, and I have never seen or even heard of electroplating equipment in organizational, intermediate, or depot level repair shops. I can't imagine why such facilities would be needed or used, and can not see how repair shops in the 1940s and 1950s were any different. Typical weapon refinishing only happens at depot level, where black oxide and parkerizing finishes were used.

Plating did occur in Theater repair shops during WW2. However I've never seen a US issue firearm that was verified as having been plated during wartime. Perhaps it was considered OK to modify captured pieces but not OK to deface Government property. Also, all of the pieces I've ever seen whose original owner was known were associated with air crew members. It's obvious why ground combat troops would not want a flashy piece of equipment and air crew members could be less concerned.

It would be very interesting if it could be verified that this pistol was plated while in service. Most likely though it was brought home and plated post war. Who would want a flat finish? It would have been easier to find a plating shot than someone who could put a good blue job on it.

Just to round out this discussion, the factory did chrome-plate a very small batch of
.38 M&P's . I've owned two of them, one being shipped to Miles Standish VI or VII in 1942.
They were both 6" guns.

Suppossedly these were done in the 1935-ish era, as an experiment to find something less
expensive than nickel plating. They really looked like chrome, with that bluish tone to
the surface.

I've always thought the number was something like 25 to 50 guns, and the second one
was shipped sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's . I'm not saying that this has
anything to do with chrome Victories, but indeed they had done some chrome guns.

Later, Mike Priwer

i have seen one victory model that was chrome plated on a repair ship in the pacific during WWII. my wife's boss owns it now and got it from the navy veteran who was a machinest's mate and told the current owner that he did the plating on it and others while on the ship. lee

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Lee. I'm the guy who brought this all up. Did you write about this before on this forum? A long time ago? Because what you just wrote sounds real close to what I thought I read somewhere about this chrome plating during the war. BTW. This Victory was chromed
right over every ding, bump, and blemish. No concern whatsoever about looks.

wyatt, i think i did a few years ago during a similar thread. these repair ships must have had the ability to fix/make just about anything and finish in chrome to protect certain items/parts from the salt air/water. this particular victory model is pretty rough as i recall. lee

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