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The trouble is that very few military pistols were nickel plated even in civilian versions, and I know of none that were plated in their issue versions. For obvious reasons, bright shiny pistols were not in favor with the military of any nation.
But after the two World Wars, American troops brought back tons of captured enemy guns and some of the veterans thought they would "improve" the weapons by having them nickel or chrome plated. This was done mostly to pistols, though I knew of one chrome-plated MP.40. Most of the plating was done to Lugers, which were seen as more valuable; P.38's were uniformly derided as "stamped out junk" and so escaped the plating fad.
From the perspective of 20-20 hindsight, plating often made a gun worth thousands into a gun worth $100 or so, but the returning soldiers apparently didn't see it that way. In fairness, most of the handguns sold in the U.S. before WWII were either normally nickel plated or plating was an option, so the idea of plating didn't create such a jarring note as it does today for some of us.
Jim
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