For every hour a Pacific Marine spent in the famous battles, he spent days marching — up coral tracks and through jungle, under a tropical sun, carrying his world on his back. A rifleman's load ran to fifty pounds and more: rifle and ammunition, pack and poncho, entrenching tool, canteens, and rations, all of it soaked by rain and sweat. Malaria, dysentery, and jungle rot did as much to thin the ranks as enemy fire. The photographs that survive are mostly of battle, but the seasoned Marine's real war was this — the long, grinding approach march between one island fight and the next.

K&C offers the set as a trio of Marines on the march, each with an M1 Garand slung over the shoulder, packs and full field gear, camouflage-covered M1 helmets, and the weary, deliberate stride of men who have done this before. They fall in behind their colonel, Chesty Puller, and march into the same Pacific war as W. Britain's WWII Marine Rifleman and Eugene Sledge of the Old Breed.

King & Country model USMC062. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Three-figure set of marching Marines on sculpted groundwork bases. Boxed.