For all the tanks, aircraft, and artillery, a war is finally won by a man with a rifle walking forward to take the next field and stay on it. The infantry did that work, and paid for it: riflemen made up only a modest share of the U.S. Army's strength, yet they absorbed the great majority of its battle casualties. The rifleman also carried his war on his back — the M1 Garand, a full cartridge belt, pack, entrenching tool, rations, and canteen, a load of sixty pounds and more. Everything else in the army existed, in the end, to get him onto the objective and keep him alive on it.

The figure stands at the ready, M1 Garand held across his body, in the M1943 field jacket and netted helmet, the M1944 combat pack and M1923 cartridge belt slung on M1936 suspenders — the standard load of the late-war ETO rifleman. He is the building block of any rifle-squad diorama: fall him in beside the BAR Man for automatic support and the Infantryman Loading M1 Garand, all driven forward by the Infantry NCO Shouting.

W. Britain model 25242. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.