The word "Grenadier" is older than gunpowder armies — it once meant the elite soldiers who threw the first crude grenades — and in 1942 Germany revived it as an honorific for its ordinary infantry, a nod to tradition as the war turned against them. The grenade this man carries is the weapon that gave the title its name: the Stielhandgranate, the "potato masher," its long wooden handle acting as a lever to fling it farther than a ball-shaped grenade could go. It was a concussion weapon, built to stun and shock rather than spray shrapnel, and in a pinch soldiers wired several heads around one to make a bundled charge heavy enough to crack a bunker or a tank track.

The figure strides forward with the stick grenade cocked back and a 98k in his other hand, in a camouflage smock and steel helmet, a Panzerfaust close to hand. Build a German assault around him: take direction from the Grenadier Directing with StG 44, bring up the anti-tank punch of the Grenadier with Panzerfaust, and press it against the U.S. Infantryman Advancing with Caution.

W. Britain model 25111. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.