[Guest]

I currently own a British S&W .38 Victory model with all the usual British proofmarks.
On the grip strap it has "Pol. Lun. 114"

I have never seen this on any other one and have not been able to find what it means.
Can anyone help?

 

[montenegrin]

My (educated) guess is this gun was issued to some domestic police force in occupied Germany (or Austria) after 1945. It is an established fact that revolvers were issued to local German police in that period by the Allies. They were not liked and were soon replaced by semi-autos such as Astra, and later largely with Manurhin Walthers.
Regards,
montenegrin

 

[jacobtowne]

I agree. Many were issued to native security forces after the war. If Germany or Austria, Pol. is likely Polizei. Lun. could be any jurisdiction, city or state, that begins with those letters, Lüneburg, for example.
114 is probably the rack number.
Does the U in Lun have an umlaut or other mark over it?
JT

 

[Guest]

No, there's no umlaut. It just has "Pol. Lun. 114".
I've always wondered what it meant and assumed that it had been issued to some police force in England or a Free Polish unit. The German angle that you both mentioned is very interesting. I did not know that the Allies armed German/Austrian police with American and British weapons. It would make sense to rearm them with obsolete pea-shooters like this rather than more lethal Third Reich weapons.
It is evident that this one has seen some service because of holsterwear, but it's in good working order and is an excellent shooter. The .38 short round is very underpowered even by World War II standards.
I've never seen another Liberty model with this kind of marking and have been very curious about it.

 

[jacobtowne]

IN Charles Pate's "U.S. Handguns of WWII-The Secondary Pistols and Revolvers," there is an entire chapter on S&W Victory revolvers. In the section on Lend Lease revolvers, there are photos of revolvers with `Polizei Berlin', `Österreich. Pol.`, etc. property stamps. Evidently they were fairly widely distributed in these former Axis nations.
I highly recommend this excellent book.
The .38 S&W cartridge is indeed underpowered by most military sidearm standards, but I certainly wouldn't want to catch a couple of them in the chest.
JT