In the roar of a firefight a shout carries only a few feet and often gives away a position, so soldiers learned to speak with their hands. Every army codified a vocabulary of arm-and-hand signals — a flat hand pressed down for "take cover," an arm pumped for "double time," a fist for "halt," a point for "enemy there" — and at squad level, where radios were scarce, these silent commands did most of the directing. The grenadier here has thrown out an arm mid-signal, moving his men without a word. It is one of the least visible and most constant skills of infantry combat: leading by gesture.

Caught mid-gesture in an autumn oak-leaf smock, MP 40 pouches across his chest, the grenadier is waving his squad on. Put the men he is directing in front of him — the SS Advancing with MP 40 and the SS Advancing with Panzerfaust — and place him under the Waffen SS Officer whose orders he relays. Posed together, a directing figure and the troops responding to him give a diorama something most lack: a sense of movement and command flowing through the scene.

W. Britain model 25267. 1/30 scale, matte-painted metal. Single figure — a Waffen-SS grenadier in oak-leaf camouflage, directing movement with an outstretched arm. Boxed.