Gefreiter was as far as he could go. Until 1918 it was the only rank an enlisted man in the Imperial German Army could be promoted to — the single step between joining and leaving, unless you were picked for training as an Unteroffizier and taken out of the ranks altogether. It carried no formal command authority. What it carried was that everyone knew you had been there longer than they had. A Gefreiter ran a watch, took out a patrol, was senior in the room. Four years of war, and this is the top of the ladder for a man still carrying a rifle.

W. Britain has him in the field cap rather than the helmet — hands loose, rifle slung, standing about. That is a man out of the line. He is Bavarian, and the Kaiser's officers explain what that meant: Bavaria kept its own army, its own war ministry and its own king, and lent itself to the Kaiser only in wartime. In a diorama he stands easy behind the infantryman advancing and the stormtrooper, who are doing the work.

W. Britain model 23121. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single standing figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.