RM Vivas
US Veteran
Recently I’ve started looking at some of the correspondence between the shooting public and S&W during 1945.
This is an interesting time because even though the war was winding down, there were still quite a bit of restrictions on firearms and even after VE and VJ Day the Defense Supplies Corporation was still gatekeeping Victory models and taking applications for them.
Whats really fascinating and, I think, overlooked by historians is the value of these simple letters from people asking S&W about guns.
My original intent in looking through the correspondence was to glean out Victory serial numbers and I did find a bit of those.
Interspersed with those however is a great deal of interesting accounts of wartime experiences, comments from S&W about post-war plans and just all kinds of interesting things.
How interesting?
Notes on some things I’ve found so far:
A Navy Beach Master who lost his .38/44 HD on the beach on Okinawa. Quite a few people wrote to S&W to ask about parts for personal guns that they brought with them. A surprising number of top break Smiths went to war tucked into some GI’s blouse! Lots of letters from guys overseas looking for New Departure parts and similar such.
A fellow who wanted to know if a .38 S&W Victory could be converted to .38 Special. It could. Cost would be $20.80.
Another fellow with a .38/200 Victory that he bought from another soldier who had taken it off a Jap officer on Okinawa! He wanted it knocked down to 2.5” but S&W didn’t have any barrels in that caliber on hand.
A member of an Oregon sheriff’s militia wrote about how he was satisfied with his Victory and told of carrying it while guarding sites where Japanese balloon bombs had landed. This letter is great because the subject of Japanese balloon bombs was supposed to be kept secret. This fellow describes their size and mechanism. A rather rare civilian mention of them immediately after the war.He explained that there were quite a number of them and he had once seen four in one day. He goes on to mention that he actually liked the wartime finish on his Victory as he found it very ‘business-like’.
This seem to have put him at odds with a large number of people who wrote to S&W asking about getting their Victory revolvers refinished. S&W had a form-type letter response that went into detail about how the wartime finishes were applied and why is was not practical to refinish such guns with anything other than their original wartime finish.
An officer in France who apparently had asked S&W if his Victory could be re-chambered to 9mm. These two letters are especially interesting as, in response, S&W mailed detailed instructions on how to face the cylinder to allow for 9mm cartridges in moon clips to fit AND THEY SENT HIM THE CLIPS!!!
A phenomenal number of people asking if they could have their 4 inch Victory revolvers re-barrelled to 2 inch. The answer was yes and once DSC authorized the release of a 4 inch gun to the purchaser, S&W would convert it to 2 inch (for $1.50 repair charge) before shipping. It’s amazing how many people asked about this!
According to S&W, restrictions on the sale of ammunition were lifted on 01NOV45.
Quite a bit of interesting tidbits to go through!!
This is an interesting time because even though the war was winding down, there were still quite a bit of restrictions on firearms and even after VE and VJ Day the Defense Supplies Corporation was still gatekeeping Victory models and taking applications for them.
Whats really fascinating and, I think, overlooked by historians is the value of these simple letters from people asking S&W about guns.
My original intent in looking through the correspondence was to glean out Victory serial numbers and I did find a bit of those.
Interspersed with those however is a great deal of interesting accounts of wartime experiences, comments from S&W about post-war plans and just all kinds of interesting things.
How interesting?
Notes on some things I’ve found so far:
A Navy Beach Master who lost his .38/44 HD on the beach on Okinawa. Quite a few people wrote to S&W to ask about parts for personal guns that they brought with them. A surprising number of top break Smiths went to war tucked into some GI’s blouse! Lots of letters from guys overseas looking for New Departure parts and similar such.
A fellow who wanted to know if a .38 S&W Victory could be converted to .38 Special. It could. Cost would be $20.80.
Another fellow with a .38/200 Victory that he bought from another soldier who had taken it off a Jap officer on Okinawa! He wanted it knocked down to 2.5” but S&W didn’t have any barrels in that caliber on hand.
A member of an Oregon sheriff’s militia wrote about how he was satisfied with his Victory and told of carrying it while guarding sites where Japanese balloon bombs had landed. This letter is great because the subject of Japanese balloon bombs was supposed to be kept secret. This fellow describes their size and mechanism. A rather rare civilian mention of them immediately after the war.He explained that there were quite a number of them and he had once seen four in one day. He goes on to mention that he actually liked the wartime finish on his Victory as he found it very ‘business-like’.
This seem to have put him at odds with a large number of people who wrote to S&W asking about getting their Victory revolvers refinished. S&W had a form-type letter response that went into detail about how the wartime finishes were applied and why is was not practical to refinish such guns with anything other than their original wartime finish.
An officer in France who apparently had asked S&W if his Victory could be re-chambered to 9mm. These two letters are especially interesting as, in response, S&W mailed detailed instructions on how to face the cylinder to allow for 9mm cartridges in moon clips to fit AND THEY SENT HIM THE CLIPS!!!
A phenomenal number of people asking if they could have their 4 inch Victory revolvers re-barrelled to 2 inch. The answer was yes and once DSC authorized the release of a 4 inch gun to the purchaser, S&W would convert it to 2 inch (for $1.50 repair charge) before shipping. It’s amazing how many people asked about this!
According to S&W, restrictions on the sale of ammunition were lifted on 01NOV45.
Quite a bit of interesting tidbits to go through!!
