This was the argument the British line settled again and again: line against column. The French attacked in dense columns — fast, easy to steer, good for morale, but with only the front two ranks able to fire. The British waited in a line just two men deep, every musket bearing, often lying down behind a crest until the column was close. Then they stood, leveled, and fired volleys into a mass where almost every ball found something. A column might carry the weight of a battering ram, but a steady line could put four or five times as many shots into it — and time after time, in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, the column broke first.

The figure fires standing — musket braced to the shoulder, the red coat with blue Guards facings and white lace, white cross-belts, grey campaign trousers and the black shako. He is the standing rank of a two-deep firing line. Kneel a British 1st Foot Guard Kneeling Firing in the front rank before him, raise the British 1st Foot Guards Colour behind the line as its rallying point, and set the whole line against the French in A Desperate Struggle for the climax of Waterloo.

W. Britain model 36161. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.