The MG 42 was the machine gun that the rest of the world eventually copied. Where the Allies split the job between a light squad automatic like the BAR and a heavier belt-fed gun like the .30 cal, the MG 42 did both: on a bipod it was the section's portable firepower, and dropped onto a tripod it became a sustained-fire heavy gun — the first true general-purpose machine gun. It was also a triumph of wartime production, replacing the finely machined MG 34 with a cheaper, tougher design stamped and welded out of sheet steel. So sound was the concept that its direct descendant, the German MG3, is still in service today.

The figure sprints forward with the MG 42 and its bipod in his hands, greatcoat streaming, steel helmet low — the gunner moving to a new position. Reunite the crew with the Grenadier with the Spare Barrel and the prone MG 42 team firing, set against the American gun that answered it, the "Suppressing Fire" M1919 Team.

W. Britain model 25233. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.