On his back this soldier carries the device that gave the American infantry its voice: the SCR-300, the world's first practical portable FM radio — and the set that gave the word "walkie-talkie" to the language. Worked with a handset, it let a platoon or company commander talk clearly, by voice, over a mile or two of ground, where older radios hissed with static or needed Morse and a key. Its FM signal shrugged off the crackle of engines and gunfire that crippled ordinary sets, and was harder for the enemy to jam or overhear. In the broken, fast-moving fighting of the Bulge, where telephone wire was cut and units scattered, the walkie-talkie was often the only thread holding a defense together.

The radioman trudges forward with the SCR-300 and its long whip antenna riding high on his back, an M1 Carbine — the light semi-automatic issued to support troops who couldn't easily carry a full rifle — held across his body, head turned to catch a sound or a signal. He is the link in the chain: pose him between the Command Set he reports to and the Four Man Patrol whose contact he relays back, with riflemen like the Standing Rifleman holding the line around him. In a diorama the antenna alone tells a story — it marks the man everyone else depends on to be heard.

Model: BBA102 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set