When the Marines retook Guam in the summer of 1944, the war dogs went in with the assault battalions. A Doberman named Kurt, scouting ahead of the 2nd Marine War Dog Platoon, warned of a Japanese ambush and was mortally wounded by a mortar fragment — his alert saved the patrol behind him. Twenty-five Marine dogs died on Guam and were buried there; the postwar "Always Faithful" memorial over their graves honors them still, an echo of the Corps' own Semper Fidelis. Dobermans like Kurt became the unofficial breed of the Pacific Marines, scouts and sentries who could smell or hear an enemy long before any man could.

W. Britain pairs the handler and his Doberman on a single base — the Marine in HBT dungarees and a camouflaged M1 helmet, web gear and pack, the leash in one hand and a sidearm ready in the other, the dog alert in its working harness at his knee. Scout-dog teams worked at the very front of a patrol, so the pair slots naturally into a Pacific jungle scene ahead of a WWII Marine Rifleman and a Marine Raider, with a Marine with SCR-300 radio following to call in whatever the dog finds.

W. Britain model 13029. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), solid metal hand-painted in a matte finish. Two-piece set — one handler and one dog — on a shared sculpted groundwork base. Supplied in original W. Britain packaging.