A good infantryman learned to see with more than his eyes. Watching for movement was a trained skill and a survival one: the man who spotted the enemy first usually lived, so soldiers were taught to hold still and read the ground through every sense. A glint of metal, a wisp of smoke or cooking, freshly disturbed earth, birdsong that suddenly stopped, the wrong shape in a hedgerow — any of these might betray a hidden position before a shot was fired. The hardest part was patience. "Be calm, be cool, be keen," ran the advice; move without thinking and you could walk your squad straight into an ambush.

The figure kneels motionless, M1 Garand held upright at his side and a hand steadying him on the ground, eyes working the treeline. He is the halt in an advancing-squad diorama: hold him watching while the Infantryman Advancing with Caution eases forward and the Company Officer reads the ground, with the Infantryman Kneeling Firing M1 Garand ready if the watch turns to a fight.

W. Britain model 25190. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single kneeling foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.