I have my Dad's S&W 38 that he carried in WWII as a gunner on B-24s based in Italy. I know the wartime history of the gun.It was not issued to him, it was given to him by the ordnance chief after he completed 10 missions in 1943 because it was like the one issued to him when he enlisted in the cavalry in 1940. It was carried on all but his last mission when he was shot done and made a POW (carried a 45 that day)The grips were change during the war because the wooden ones had been worn slick and was hard to hold. The clear grips are Plexiglas from a wind screen of a crash landed B24. The serial Number is 894419 The receiver has United States Property stamped on the left side.

Any info on this gun would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Mark

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I can honestly say those are the first stocks I've ever seen that are made from the wind screen of a crashed WWII bomber. Very unique and cool, some WWII collectors would go gaga over this gun.

The revolver itself is a .38 Smith & Wesson Military and Police. These guns were commonly called Victory models during war production. However, yours does not have a V prefix on the serial number as Victory models did, and appears to have a blued finish. The serial numbers falls in the 1940-1945 time frame. Someone far more knowledgeable than I will fill in all the gaps shortly.

Great revolver! Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

Look at the flat underside of the barrel and the rear face of the cylinder. Do you find the same serial number in those locations as well?

I ask because the US Property stamp is unusual on a gun that chambers the .38 S&W round (which is NOT the same as .38 Special). S&W made a few hundred thousand revolvers in the .38 S&W chambering, which the British called .38/200, for Commonwealth countries before and during US involvement in the war. Usually you would find such guns covered in British proof stamps; some of them were converted to .38 special after the war by simply lengthening the chambers of guns in .38 S&W. That was not always a successful modification, as the shorter round has a slightly wider diameter than .38 Special, and the longer rounds would sometimes swell or even split when fired in the converted revolvers. Does this gun chamber .38 Special? If so, is there any evidence of two separate shoulders inside the charge holes? If the cylinder accepts ONLY .38 Special rounds, and if it has the same serial number as the frame, then perhaps the wrong barrel was installed at the factory. If it won't chamber a .38 Special but takes .38 S&W (which the Europeans call .38 Corto, or short), it was correctly assembled in the first place.

These wartime S&W revolvers are units in the most successful model line that S&W ever produced -- the .38 Military & Police. The first units came out in 1899, and a revised version appeared in 1902. Further revisions came with the Model of 1905, and minor changes over the next decade culminated in the Model of 1905 fourth change in 1915. That variety stayed pretty stable until after WWII, with the exception of a redesigned hammer block system in early 1945. It took S&W from 1899 to 1942 to make the first million units. The second million (which until the war was over carried the V-for-victory prefix to distinguish them from the first million, and then after the war an S prefix for the same reason) were completed by 1948. Total production of this model and its successors is now estimated to be in the six to seven million range. There is a reason S&W made so many. They are excellent sidearms, and hundreds of thousands of Americans came to trust in their reliability.

At any rate, the serial number suggests your gun was shipped in early 1942. Many would call it a Pre-Victory, as it is essentially the same guns as the ones produced from mid-1942 through the end of the war; those are the ones that had a V prefix on the serial numbers.

I have heard that many bomber crews made see-through stocks from plexiglass bomber windows. Sometimes pictures of family members are found under the plexiglass. This gun is in that tradition.

The hole in the base is for a lanyard loop. You can find one and reinstall it if you are interested in bringing the gun back to original configuration.

EDITED TO ADD: I should have mentioned that the five-inch barrel on your gun is more typical of the British contract production. American M&P/Victory revolvers of this period in .38 Special usually had four-inch barrels.

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David Wilson

Second on what David wrote. I think I see ".38 S & W CTG" on the right barrel, therefore if the barrel is numbered to the gun your dad was given a British .38/200 to carry.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

I have also seen plexiglass stocks before. I think a very interesting aspect is the "W.B." and what I think is supposed to be a "8" stamped into the butt. Your Dad's initials? 8th Air Force? Inquiring minds want to know....

Could you possibly post a close-up of the "United States Property" marking?

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

I wonder if the W.B. marking was the inspection stamp of Waldemar Broberg who inspected small arms in WW II. The '8' is the flaming bomb Ordnance symbol. Ordnanceguy will probably be along shortly to ask for the serial number to add to his dtabase.

Don't know about the W.B. initials. I do know that it is not the 8 for 8th Air Force. That would be like waving a red flag infront of a bull, He was in 15th Air Force in North Africa and Italy. Here is the picture

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Thanks for sharing about the gun and your own family history!

A very interesting thread!!!

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Peace Thru Superior Firepower

All serial numbers match and it is chambered for the 38 S&W not 38 Special.

Funny story there was pictures under the grips, a naked English gril on one side and a naked Arab girl on the other. When the gun was shipped back to my grandparents after Dad was shot down and captured, my Grandmother would not allow it in the house until those pictures were removed.

Dad removed it so it would not hang on his clothes when he carried it in a shoulder holster.

The story makes more sense than most that are handed down with a firearm. I know some Lend-Lease rifles were stamped US Property so I why wouldn’t a Lend-Lease pre-Victory to also have those marks? The OP said his dad was not issued that revolver, but given to him by the Ordinance Chief. This makes sense as well. The Ordinance Chief would probably hesitate to “give” a US issue firearm to someone, but a firearm owned by an allied or enemy army would be a different story. This is only the second time I’ve seen Plexiglas referred to as being from a US plane. Most “stories” accompanying these types of grips have them coming from a Zero or a JU88. Fact is that ‘glass from damaged US aircraft was much easier to come by and so more likely used.

Looking more closely, I agree, it's the flaming bomb.

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

The grips and the story about the naked girls makes me think this story is on the level.

Someone just gave your dad a British service revolver. No telling how the ordnance chief came by it.

I read a book by a US fighter pilot in Italy. His squadron flew US-marked Spitfires, a mix of MK V and MK IX's, until they got Mustangs. I've seen a photo of a US Spitfire that was shot down over the beaches at Anzio. I imagine that the guys driving those were appreciative of the greater manuerability over the P-47 also flown in that theater. P-38's and P-40's also saw heavy use there, often raiding deeply into Yugoslavia, Romania, and even into Germany. (The Spits didn't have the range for the longer trips; they were easy for the Mustang.)
Where was your father bombing when he was shot down? The Ploesti oil fields were frequent B-24 targets, and casualties were pretty heavy. Besides German fighters, Hungarian and Romanian fighters opposed Allied efforts, and flak was terrible.

For those who don't know, the 8th AF was based in England, not in Italy!

You're lucky the gun came home. Some of the personal effects of shot-down men were shared by their buddies. Looks as if his squadron mates were honest.

That gun he was issued in the cavalry in 1940 was probably a M-1917 .45. It looks like a larger version of your .38.

Interesting story and a very neat gun with family history. My father brought back 2 guns from his time in Germany. 1 is a double barrel shotgun and the other one is a Behorden Model semi automatic. The Behorden model has the same style stocks that your gun has, made from some form of clear plastic.

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James Redfield
LM #497

The Behorden Model was made by J. P. Sauer.

It was a raid on the rail yards north of Vienna. It was last part of the war, he was liberated from Stalag 7a at Mooseberg Germany by George Patton's 3rd army after 39 days of being a POW. For those that might think that 39 days isn't so bad, his weight went from 235 lbs of muscle (he was a jock) to 185lbs.

I asked him today about the cavalry gun and he said it was a 38 special model 10. When he enlisted on Aug 24,1940 he was sent to the 5th Cav. no boot camp, you had basic training in your assigned unit. He was issued the pistol and a 1903 Springfield. All officers were West Point grads only two enlisted men had high school educations, my dad and one other recruit. There were corporals that had over 20 years service, and Captains with over 25 years service. This was in the elite cavalry units, God's arm the queen of battle. The Army has changed a lot for the better. He did stay in the service and retired from the Air Force as a CWO-4 with 27 years service.

Interesting.
My project manager in the early 1980s was a B-24 bombardier in the 512 squadron of 376th HBG flying out of Italy. But the 376th was under the 9th Air Force.

For that matter, my Mother worked at the B-24 satellite plant in Birmingham, Ala., run by Bechtel-McCone.

I have seen a lot of autos with Plexiglas grips but this is only about the second revolver, and the first wartime job.
Probably easier to cut out the flat panel for a 1911 or other autopistol than the contours of a revolver.
I have always suspected that there were a lot of nude, pinup, and previous girlfriends' pictures discarded at spousal request.

The 376th was originally in the 9th AF but later in the 15th They were bombing the same stuff as my Dad only started earlier. They were the lead on the first Ploesti raid

see
The History of The 376th Heavy Bombardment Group in World War II