1943 U.S. Navy Victory .38 Special

[Sauermonkey]

Victory Revolver with some accessories

sent from my i-phone using crapatalk

[j-shot]

SWEET find!!

[alabamacoastie]

I'll take it! Hahaha.

[j-shot]

I'll take it! Hahaha.

Yeah no kidding looks nice

[mosinnagantm9130]

Looks like it's in pretty nice shape

[smle-man]

Very nice! The 1911 magazine pouch is a great place to stash some Lucky Strike cigarettes.

[Sauermonkey]

Thanks Gentlemen and yes its in pretty good shape and the best part is it shoots POA/POI I cant ask for more... well if i could find the Navy specific ammo pouch that would be a plus.

[alpha_romeo_XV]

That looks like a S&W. Was there something unique about a Victory Navy beyond name?

[Enfield47]

Very nice pickup, congrats.

[Milsurp Collector]

That looks like a S&W. Was there something unique about a Victory Navy beyond name?

They are Smith & Wesson K-frame revolvers, the same model that eventually became the classic S&W Model 10.

Most were marked U.S. PROPERTY (top one in picture below), some were marked U.S. NAVY. The U.S. NAVY ones are a little more desirable.

[ojisan]

My Dad carried one of these guns in WW2 (Navy, Pacific theater, air crew).
For years he still had the holster and some tracer rounds.
The tracers were used for signaling if the plane went down in the ocean.
I'd love to get a gun and accessories set like this.

Great set, congratulations!

[Sauermonkey]

Thanks Milsurp for the explaination and pictures to Alpha Romeo.

[Sauermonkey]

Here's some more users.. Actual World War 2 .38 Special ammo was all supplied by Remington to the U.S. Government it was specified with a 158gr Copper clad steel jacketed bullet at about 850 fps and was a little more stout than the weaker 130gr loads the Army and air Force used in the 1950s and 1960s.

[Milsurp Collector]

Future President George H.W. Bush carried a Victory Revolver as an Avenger pilot during World War II.



Bush was shot down while attacking ChiChi Jima in September 1944.

George H. W. Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles (1,100 km) south of Tokyo, in September 1944. Bush was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese. After the war it was discovered that the captured airmen had been beaten and tortured before being executed. The airmen were beheaded on the orders of Lt Gen. Yoshio Tachibana (立花芳夫, Tachibana Yoshio). American authorities claimed that Japanese officers then ate parts of the bodies of four of the men.

Tachibana, alongside 11 other Japanese personnel, was tried in August 1946 in relation to the execution of U.S. Navy airmen, and the cannibalism of at least one of them, during August 1944. Because military and international law did not specifically deal with cannibalism, they were tried for murder and "prevention of honorable burial".

This case was investigated in 1947 in a war crimes trial, and of 30 Japanese soldiers prosecuted, five (Maj. Matoba, Gen. Tachibana, Adm. Mori, Capt. Yoshii, and Dr. Teraki) were found guilty. Tachibana was sentenced to death, and hanged. In his book Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, James Bradley (son of Iwo Jima flag raiser John Bradley and also author of Flags of Our Fathers) details several instances of cannibalism of World War II Allied prisoners by their Japanese captors. The author claims that this included not only ritual cannibalization of the livers of freshly killed prisoners, but also the cannibalization-for-sustenance of living prisoners over the course of several days, amputating limbs only as needed to keep the meat fresh.

Bush was rescued by the submarine USS Finback. Bush gave his Victory Revolver as a token of thanks to Lt. j.g. Albert Brostrom, who welcomed him to the submarine and whose bunk he shared for a month.

Albert Brostrom died in 1982. After finding the revolver buried among his things in 2006, the family contacted Bush's office about giving it back.

Former President Bush was reunited with his Victory Revolver in 2007.



Bush donated the revolver, Serial # V361858, to the Constitutional Museum in Philadelphia.

[ojisan]

Awesome info and pics.
Thank you!