The army would rather invent a rank than let you in. By 1918 it had grown from about 800,000 men to over thirteen million, and junior officers were being killed faster than they could be commissioned. The obvious answer was to promote good sergeants. Instead it built halfway houses. A Feldwebelleutnant ranked as the most junior second lieutenant and did a second lieutenant's job — but he held no commission, and until 1917 he ate in the sergeants' mess. An Offizierstellvertreter, a deputy officer, was the same idea one rung down. They filled the gap without being let through the door.

This one is through the door. W. Britain has him standing with his arms folded, which is what a man does while other people work — Stahlhelm, field grey, the Iron Cross on his breast, belt and cross strap. In a diorama he is the man the Bavarian Gefreiter could never become, however long he served, and the stormtroopers are who he is watching. Across the wire, the British officer kneeling with his revolver is doing the same job inside a different class system.

W. Britain model 23087. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single standing figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Supplied in a clamshell pack.