There was a time when the Luftwaffe owned the sky over the German army; by this stage of the war, those days were gone. As Allied and Soviet air forces grew and Germany's shrank, the men on the ground could no longer count on friendly fighters overhead — instead they learned to dread the sound of aero engines, because the aircraft overhead were almost always the enemy's. Early warning became a matter of survival, and units posted watchers like this sergeant to scan the horizon and raise the alarm the moment a plane appeared. His binoculars were as vital as the guns he directed: a few seconds' warning let a column scatter, or a crew swing their barrels onto a diving fighter-bomber in time. The lost sky had turned every soldier into a lookout.

The figure is a Feldwebel — a sergeant — in a white snow suit with the red arm-band, an MP40 slung across his chest and ammunition cans at his feet, binoculars pressed to his eyes as he searches the sky. K&C sculpted him without a base so he can stand on the gun platform itself, directing the crew — pose him aboard the Flakvierling half-track, calling targets to the gunners, with the Vehicle Guards watching the ground and the MG34 Team dug in nearby. In a diorama the man with the raised binoculars is the one who sees the danger first — the figure the whole scene is listening to.

Model: BBG139 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set (no base)