The rifle this GI is aiming gave the American infantry an edge no enemy could match. The M1 Garand was the first semi-automatic rifle issued as standard to any army in the world — while German and most other soldiers still worked a bolt by hand between shots, the American squeezed off eight rounds as fast as he could pull the trigger. General Patton called it "the greatest battle implement ever devised," and in a firefight the difference was decisive: a handful of GIs could put out the volume of fire that would have taken a whole section of bolt-action riflemen. Rugged, accurate and forgiving of mud and cold, it armed the U.S. Army through the entire war.

The figure stands square and takes deliberate aim with his M1, a long GI overcoat crusted with snow, netted helmet, cartridge belt at his waist — the archetypal American infantryman holding his ground. He forms a firing line with the collection's other combat poses: the Kneeling Rifleman, the Grenadier mid-throw, and the Tommy-Gunner with his submachine gun. Spaced along a snowy treeline or a hedgerow, standing and kneeling figures together give a diorama the staggered depth of a squad actually in the fight.

Model: BBA095 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set