John W. "Johnny" Martin was one of the original Toccoa men — the volunteers who ran up Currahee and formed Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry, in 1942. Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1922, he jumped into Normandy on D-Day, dropped into Holland for Market Garden, held the line at Bastogne, and was still there at the end, when the 506th liberated the Landsberg concentration camp and took Hitler's Eagle's Nest. His friends called him "the Scrounger." Bill Guarnere, who fought beside him and stood as best man at his wedding, remembered him as a man who could talk his way out of any duty he pleased — except fighting. In combat, nobody questioned him.

The figure has him kitted for the jump on the night of 5 June 1944 — M42 jump suit, netted helmet, reserve chute across his chest, a yellow life vest for the Channel crossing and a leg bag strapped below the knee — giving a thumbs-up on the airfield. Stand him with his company commander Capt. Dick Winters and his fellow Easy Company man "Shifty" Powers, then follow them to the winter that made them famous in Welcome to Bastogne. An airfield on the eve of D-Day — men in full kit, waiting to load — is one of the most human scenes a diorama can hold.

W. Britain model 25337. 1/30 scale, matte-painted metal. Single figure — Sgt. John W. "Johnny" Martin, E Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne, in D-Day jump kit. Boxed.