The winter of 1944-45 was one of the coldest northwest Europe had seen in decades, and it fell on an army still short of proper cold-weather clothing. Along the German border and through the Ardennes, riflemen fought in temperatures that froze the ground too hard to dig, jammed weapon actions unless the oil was wiped nearly dry, and turned a night in a foxhole into a survival problem of its own. Men scavenged white bedsheets for snow camouflage and stuffed their boots with straw and paper. Simply keeping moving — rifle slung, the next tree line ahead — was often the difference between warm blood and frostbite.

The figure shows a rifleman on the march in the M1943 field jacket and M1 helmet, his M1 Garand carried across his body, the ten-pocket M1923 belt of en-bloc clips at his waist and a captured Luger holstered as a trophy. He leads a winter-advance diorama: fall him in with the Infantryman Kneeling Firing in Greatcoat and the Infantryman with M1 Garand, with the Infantry NCO Shouting pushing the squad through the snow.

W. Britain model 25154. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.