One of the reasons Police retain revolvers in the post WWII era was the Federal Government had purchased so much .38 caliber ammo that the Feds gave it away till the 1970s (The US used the ,45 Automatic, but the .38 was purchased as an auxiliary weapon for Colt and Smith and Wesson had production lines up for it and the US thought it might be needed. Some .38s were issued and used but the US had a lot of ammunition made up for .38 special that the US military never shipped overseas).
Please note WWII production quality was NOT up to post WWII standard so some of the ammo was just bad, would not fire. In an automatic that was and is a problem, no fire, you have to work the action yourself. In a revolver all you have to do is pull the trigger again and fire on an new round.
Most US surplus ammo was used for practice, the Police purchased other more reliable rounds for actual use. The problem was the misfires caused by the surplus turned off most police officers on to automatics till that surplus was used up (late 60s, early 70s) then took another decade or two for the police to embrace automatics and their greater fire power.
You be surprised what else the Military gave away after WWII, but most police departments put them in their storage area and disposed of them themselves 10-20 years later.
Now, if the item had been shipped overseas, the policy was NOT to bring them back. The reason was simple, it was to expensive and this is all before container shipper (which only came into use in 1958 and widespread use in the 1960s). Thus you had US Jeeps all over Europe and Asia. The Modern Japanese Auto Industry, through it pre dates WWII, received its big break rebuilding Jeeps for US use during the Korean War. The Jeeps had been kept in storage since WWII and needed to be overhauled for use in Korea and it was cheaper to get the Japanese to do it instead of shipping back to the US.
Furthermore, after WWII, while the Military down sized, it decided to embrace getting rid of the horse. The Horse and Mule had been kept during WWII, but as the war progressed the need for both was seen to have passed. Thus those units that still had Horses had to convert to Trucks post WWII (not many units, but enough to absorb all of the Trucks the US had and for the US to actually buy new trucks post WWII, through National Guard units used WWII Trucks till the 1970s).
Remember, most WWII Soldiers WALKED into combat. Desert Storm was the first war where NO soldier MARCHED to the combat zone. Thus the US had more trucks then anyone else during WWII, but we still did NOT have enough to move our troops by truck rather then by foot. Thus after WWII, while the number of TYPES of trucks was reduced, an effort was made to keep the most produced, the 2 1/2 ton truck. i.e. Ambulances and other vehicles that was based on vehicles other then the jeep or the 2 1/2 ton truck was sold off or given away as surplus. You see a lot of former army Ambulance trucks in movies and news film of the 1950s for this reason.
As to weapons, by the end of WWII, most US weapons were done and needed to be rebuilt. i.e, new barrels and general overhaul. The US was at the end of its supply lines by May 1945 and thus had a rough time keeping the troops supplied (one of the reason for so much 38 caliber ammunition was a desire to produce as much as possible, but then a finding that we could NOT move it out of the States, thus stayed in the US and released as Surplus after the War).
As to heavier weapons,, the US gave them to our allies or kept them in storage do to fear of a Soviet Attack. Thus the US still had Sherman Tanks in the 1950s, even after the Korea War and its production of the M47 tank and the later M48 and M60 tanks (The US had replaced most of its Shermans by the late 1950s, but those Shermans ended up with various allies of the US including Israel in the 1960s).
My points, while armor and heavy equipment was NOT transferred to the Police, other equipment, other then trucks, were transferred (including ammunition). This included Ambulances and other 1/2 tons trucks (most replaced by more modern designed by the police by the late 1950s). The items produced during WWII was only design for use during that war, there were NOT designed to last more then a few years. The Army 2 1/2 ton truck, the #1 vehicle produced during WWII, was the Standard GM Truck with four wheel drive train installed. Thus hard to tell the difference, once painted, from Commercial vehicles. Army Half tracks were also conversions of civilian trucks (White Trucks for most half tracks with an after market track system that replaced the rear wheels, after WWII used by a lot of timber companies, but many were converted back to regular trucks by replacing the track with wheels).,
Side Note: Army WWII Half Tracks started out as White Trucks with increased armor (removed in most post war usages) and the rear wheels replaced by an after market track assembly designed to fit the truck using the same mounts that conventional wheels are bolted to. Thus to convert back to wheels was easy, remove the track and install a wheel with tires that is all that was needed to be done (and remove the armor the Army added, but the Armor was NOT that thick).
We tend to forget most WWII transportation equipment was barely modified Civilian equipment. The big exception was the Jeep and the Jeep used a pre WWII Willy engine and transmission as its base (The body and frame was new, but NOT the wheels or tires, both were Civilian origin). Thus parts for these war surplus vehicles were readily available in the Civilian Market, for the vehicles themselves had started out as civilian vehicles.
In Iraq, the Humvee was replaced by various bomb resistant trucks that are now being released by the Army for the Army do no longer needs them. That is what most police departments are getting, vehicles to patrol a hostile population NOT a friendly population. The Police would like to get Humvees, in many rural areas they would be idea rescue vehicles, but the Army still has a use for Humvees, for it is a general purpose truck which can handle rescue duties, transport of supplies duties etc. The Humvees was NEVER design to operate in areas with hostile civilian population. Thus today's army can use the Humvee, they can NOT use these armored trucks.
Thus the Army is doing what it did after WWII, getting rid of vehicle he no longer needs, but this time it is not ambulances and 1/2. 3/4 and 1 ton trucks it is these large bomb resistant trucks. It is not horses and mules (Mules ended up being sent to Europe as part of the Marshall plan, when it was discovered the #1 shortage of farmers in Italy, Greece and Turkey was a lack of Mules do to high losses of mules during WWII for the Germans used Mules and horses to replace trucks when oil shortages hit the German Army starting in 1941). The US also used local mules in Italy, adding to the mule shortage in Italy among Italian farmers.
At the same time, US Farmers were embracing tractors and trucks and were willing to replace their horses and mules with war surplus trucks.
Thus after WWII the vehicle the US Military was unloading were almost all of civilian origin in the first place and replaced a lot of Civilian vehicles that had NOT been produced 1941-1945.
After the war in Iraq, the equipment the Military no longer has a use for were NOT converted civilian designs but military design from the wheels up and thus have little in common with Civilian vehicles including what you can do with them. Thus after WWII, the transfer of equipment to police and other government unit was easy for the equipment was compatible to what those government units was doing. i.e driving off road in jeeps other other similar vehicles. Today, what the Military is "giving" away has little use among civilians, we do not need bomb resistant trucks to drive to and from work or to fight forest fires. The problem is NOT the ideal behind the project, but what is being given away. After WWII what was given away was usable, today it is not.
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