The hat gives the set its name, and it did not last the war. The M1911 campaign hat was blocked to a point with four dents around the crown — the Montana peak — in olive drab wool felt, with a wide brim, ventilation grommets and a braided cord ending in a tassel. Most doughboys sailed for France wearing one. It was useless when they got there. You cannot put a steel helmet over a five-inch peak, and you cannot fold a stiff brim into a pocket, so the AEF found it had a storage problem rather than a hat. The army took them off the men and cut them up. Some of the felt was made into slippers for patients in hospital.

Four men and the gun: an officer forward with his binoculars, a loader bringing a round up, two more at the breech. Look at the hat cords — red, the U.S. Army's branch colour for artillery, and the fastest way to read any man in a campaign hat. The gun is a 75, which is to say it is French; American industry never caught up with the war, and the AEF's field guns came from France. For a diorama in matching scale, set them beside the American Vickers. For the wider story, Captain Harry Truman commanded a battery of these guns in France, and the mortar crew were another American team serving a French weapon.

Regal Enterprises WW63/A. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Five-piece set — 75mm field gun with a crew of four. Boxed.