The Bastogne perimeter was too long and too thin to hold as a solid line, so the ground between the positions became a contested no-man's-land — and the 101st fought hard to own it. Patrols slipped out into the snow, especially at night, to raid German outposts, snatch prisoners for interrogation, and keep the enemy guessing about where the thin line actually was. This was close, sudden, nerve-shredding work, decided in seconds at short range, and the Thompson submachine gun was made for it: a burst of heavy .45 slugs to win the instant a patrol bumped the enemy in the dark. Aggression in no-man's-land was how a surrounded division stayed dangerous.

The figure kneels with the Thompson ready, a long greatcoat over his jump gear and a full pack on his back, netted helmet low — a patroller frozen at a halt, listening. Send him out into a night-patrol diorama with the Trooper Advancing with Caution and the Greatcoat Trooper Firing M1, working out from the perimeter at "Welcome to Bastogne".

W. Britain model 25124. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single kneeling foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.