For all the menace of fixed steel, the bayonet rarely drew blood. Surgeons' records from the period are striking: bayonet wounds made up a tiny fraction of casualties, because the actual crossing of blades almost never happened. When two bodies of infantry came at each other with the bayonet, one side nearly always lost its nerve and broke before contact — the charge was decided in the mind, not the melee. That was the bayonet's real power: moral, not physical. A line that would not flinch as the points came on could send a stronger enemy running without firing a shot, which is why a man standing firm with his bayonet, as here, was worth more than his blade alone suggests.

The figure stands defending — bayonet fixed and levelled, weight set, the white campaign trousers flecked with mud, dark blue coat with red epaulettes and white cross-belts under the plumed bearskin. He is the second of the standing defenders and dresses naturally beside the first. Build the line with a French Imperial Guard Standing Defending alongside him and a French Imperial Guard Kneeling Defending in the front rank, or swing the scene from cold steel to fire with a French Imperial Guard Standing Firing at Will beside him.

W. Britain model 36199. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.