The MP40 is one of the most misremembered weapons of the war. Films give it to every German soldier and call it the "Schmeisser," but neither is quite right: it was issued mainly to squad and section leaders, vehicle and tank crews, and paratroopers rather than the ordinary rifleman — and Hugo Schmeisser did not actually design it. That was Heinrich Vollmer at the Erma works, though Schmeisser's name stuck to it anyway. What the MP40 did get right was manufacture: built largely from stamped sheet metal and plastic with a folding stock, it was cheap, compact, and quick to produce — a modern submachine gun for close-in fighting in trenches, houses, and the cramped insides of vehicles.

The figure kneels to fire the MP40, its folding stock braced, a Zeltbahn drawn over his greatcoat against the winter. Set him with a fellow section leader, the Grenadier NCO with MP 40, and the Grenadier Advancing Cautiously — trading close-range bursts with the American Thompson gunner.

W. Britain model 25277. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single kneeling foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.