"Panzerknacker" — tank-cracker — was the soldiers' name for a man who had destroyed a tank single-handed, and for such men Germany created a specific award: the Tank Destruction Badge, a silver sleeve stripe worn one per kill. Instituted in March 1942 and backdated to the opening of the war in the East, it recognized the near-suicidal feat of knocking out an armored vehicle alone, with a handheld weapon, at arm's length. Five kills earned a gold badge that replaced the four silver stripes. The record belonged to Günther Viezenz, credited with twenty-one tanks — twenty-one times a lone man walked up to a moving tank and killed it.

The three-piece set shows the grenadier crouched and waiting, Panzerfaust shouldered, at the held-breath moment before a tank comes into range — and it ships with two interchangeable bases, Urban Rubble and Open Field, so he can lie in wait in a shattered town or a hedgerow. Set him with the other tank-cracker, the Panzerknacker with Teller Mine, and the Grenadier Armed with Panzerfaust, then give him his prey — an American M4A3 Sherman rolling into the trap. The two bases make him two different dioramas in one box.

W. Britain model 25157. 1/30 scale, matte-painted metal. Three-piece set — a German grenadier waiting with a Panzerfaust, plus two interchangeable bases (Urban Rubble and Open Field). Boxed.