The No. 4 Mk. 1 Lee-Enfield was the rifle that armed most of the British infantry on D-Day — a .303 bolt-action carrying ten rounds in a detachable box magazine, with a cock-on-closing action that made it the fastest bolt rifle of the war. A trained rifleman could put thirty aimed shots a minute through it during the famous "Mad Minute" test on the regimental ranges; under fire and on the move that rate dropped, but the Lee-Enfield's quick bolt and high magazine capacity gave the British infantry section its rifle base of fire while the Bren gunner worked his lighter automatic. The doctrine the Green Howards used to cross the open ground above Gold Beach was fire-and-movement — one half of the section putting rounds on the German position while the other half bounded forward, then swapping — and this figure shows the bound itself: the rifleman firing from the shoulder while still moving, the careful-but-rapid shooting the British called marching fire.

This King & Country figure shows a Green Howards rifleman caught at the height of the run, weight forward on the right leg, the No. 4 Mk. 1 Lee-Enfield brought up to the cheek for an aimed shot taken on the move. The MkII steel helmet wears the foliage-strung scrim net that distinguishes the Gold Beach figures in K&C's range, the 1937-pattern webbing carries small Bren gun magazine pouches at the chest, the entrenching tool helve rides at the small of his back, and the gas-mask haversack hangs at his front in pale canvas. The Green Howards' regimental flash is visible at the upper sleeve. He shares the same morning as CSM Stan Hollis VC clearing the pillboxes ahead, the Gold Beach Grenadier putting a Mills bomb over the wall, and the Gold Beach Radioman calling the section's progress up to battalion.

Model: DD414 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set