Before the 442nd reached the Vosges, its men had already bled through Italy. The Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion — later folded into the regiment — fought at Salerno, Cassino, and Anzio and took such losses it was called the "Purple Heart Battalion." The regiment's sharpest feat came in April 1945 at the Gothic Line: ordered to break a mountain position the Germans had held for months, the 442nd climbed the sheer face of Monte Folgorito in darkness, surprised the defenders at dawn, and cracked the line in a single morning. It was in Italy, too, that a young lieutenant named Daniel Inouye lost his arm assaulting a machine-gun nest — and went on to the Medal of Honor and the Senate.

The figure shows the soldier in the field, walking with his M1 Garand slung muzzle-up over his shoulder, in an M1943 field jacket, netted helmet and full pack. It pairs directly with the same regiment in service dress, the 442nd RCT Enlisted Man, and falls in for an Italian mountain-road diorama with the Infantryman with M1 Garand and the Infantry NCO Shouting.

W. Britain model 25279. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.