The Thompson had a past before it went to war. Designed at the very end of the First World War — too late for the trenches it was meant for — the "Tommy Gun" spent the 1920s and '30s as the weapon of Prohibition gangsters and the G-men who chased them, earning nicknames like the "Chicago typewriter." The Army adopted it in 1938, and by 1945 well over a million had been built. Firing a heavy .45 pistol round at a high rate, it was fearsome up close, and it went to the men who needed close-in firepower: squad leaders and NCOs, paratroopers, Rangers, and Commandos. For clearing a trench, a room, or a hedgerow, few weapons were more respected.

The figure stands alert with the Thompson ready across his body, in an M1943 field jacket, netted helmet and marching pack. He is the leadership-and-firepower core of a rifle-squad diorama: set him with the Infantry NCO Shouting passing the word, the BAR Man on automatic, and the Infantryman with M1 Garand filling the line.

W. Britain model 25273. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.