An artillery piece is a team, not a weapon. The 88 was worked by a crew of up to eleven men, each assigned a numbered task — a commander calling the shots, two layers turning handwheels for elevation and traverse, a fuze-setter dialing the burst height, loaders, and ammunition numbers passing rounds forward in a steady relay. The gun's famous speed came not from the machinery but from drill: every man doing one job without thinking, so the crew could unlimber in under three minutes and hold fifteen to twenty rounds a minute. Take away the men and the 88 is just a tube on a carriage.

The two figures are ammunition numbers, each carrying a complete 8.8cm round toward the breech — the human relay that kept the gun fed. Set them beside their companion set Preparing for Action, No.2, feed the 88mm Flak 36/37 they serve, and place the Artillery Officer on the Field Phone behind to call the fire. Together they turn a static model gun into a crew caught mid-drill.

W. Britain model 25222. 1/30 scale, matte-painted metal. Two-figure set — two members of a German 88 Flak gun crew carrying ammunition, the first set in the "Preparing for Action" series. Boxed.