He is carrying about thirty seconds. The box holds one 250-round belt, and an MG08 empties a belt in roughly half a minute at its cyclic rate. Somebody thought about this. The handles on the metal cans were set off-centre, so that two boxes placed side by side brought their handles together and a man could take both in one hand — four boxes, two in each fist, a thousand rounds, two minutes of firing. That is the whole economy of a machine gun: the gun was never the limit. The limit was how fast men could walk toward it carrying boxes.

W. Britain has given him one box and a free hand, which is the optimistic version. The rifle is slung across his back, the gas mask is at his chest, and he is bent forward and moving — because a man walking upright with ammunition is a man being shot at. In a diorama he is going to the MG08 team, and he is the reason they can keep firing. The stormtroopers and the infantryman advancing are what he is running behind.

W. Britain model 23089. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure advancing on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.