An interesting Cold War Victory Model 10

[Jmg11986]

I got this some time ago and always wanted to lear more about it. From what I can tell, this is a British Lend Lease in 38/200 but the interesting thing is the engraving that states Gelsenkirchen. From what I can tell, after the war this gun was donated to that cities police department in the British occupied part of Germany. Here are some pics! Anyone seen one like this or can confirm my thoughts?

WW2 Lend Lease Victory Revolver - Album on Imgur

[Absalom]

Originally Posted by Jmg11986

.....but the interesting thing is the engraving that states Gelsenkirchen. From what I can tell, after the war this gun was donated to that cities police department in the British occupied part of Germany. Here are some pics! Anyone seen one like this or can confirm my thoughts?

Yes, you are correct, although “donated” is the wrong word

These were issued to various city police departments in the British occupation zone from British Army stores starting in 1946. But in contrast to the US zones, where the Germans were billed for these and kept and in the end sold these themselves, the British only loaned them, and got them back in the early 1950s, when the state where Gelsenkirchen is located, Nordrhein-Westfalen, was allowed to choose their own and bought FN Hi-Powers.

Your gun made it back to Britain and was there sold as surplus before 1955, as the commercial proofs on the gun‘s left side changed that year. Quite a few numbers from Gelsenkirchen made it to the US collector market; we‘ve seen several here, including one with the city misspelled. I think I saved the photo somewhere; I‘ll post it if I can find it again.

[dmthomp32]

That's a really interesting piece of history tied to that revolver. Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading and seeing that.

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