The thirty-pound SCR-300 strapped to a Marine's back turned him into the most important — and most hunted — man in the squad. The radio's whip antenna rising above the grass told Japanese marksmen exactly where to find the link between the rifle platoon and the artillery, mortars, and naval guns offshore, and on islands like Peleliu and Okinawa in 1944-45 radio operators were picked off deliberately. Accepted in 1942 and built by Motorola, the "Walkie-Talkie" was the first practical backpack voice radio, and nearly 50,000 were made. When a Marine assault stalled under fire, it was often a single operator's call that brought down the shells to break it.

W. Britain poses the operator down on one knee with the handset to his ear, the SCR-300 riding high on his back and its antenna whipping overhead. He wears HBT dungarees and a camouflaged M1 helmet, web gear at the waist, and a holstered M1911 .45 on the hip — often the radioman's only weapon while his hands were full of the set. He is the coordinating node of a Pacific diorama: place him behind a WWII Marine Rifleman and a Marine Raider calling in support, with the rifleman-memoirist Eugene Sledge alongside on the same Peleliu and Okinawa battlefields.

W. Britain model 13036. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), solid metal hand-painted in a matte finish. Single kneeling figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Supplied in original W. Britain packaging.