Every American rifle squad was built around its Browning Automatic Rifle. One BAR man per twelve-man squad gave the riflemen their own automatic weapon — the base of fire that pinned the enemy while the others closed in. John Browning had designed it in the last war for "walking fire," shooting from the hip on the advance; by the Second World War it was the squad's light machine gun in all but name, a heavy .30-06 fed from twenty-round magazines and fired from an open bolt. The job was coveted and dangerous in equal measure: the BAR man laid down the fire everyone else depended on, which made him the first thing the enemy tried to silence.

The figure stands alert in early-war khaki, the M1918 BAR up and ready across his body, the heavy magazine belt at his waist. He is the automatic element of a rifle-squad fire team: post him with the Infantryman with M1 Garand and the Infantry NCO with Thompson, and keep him fed with the Infantryman with .30 Cal Ammo Can for a squad diorama laying down fire.

W. Britain model 25280. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.