The American who went to war in 1918 mostly fought with other people's weapons. His rifle was often the M1917 — a British design. His automatic rifle was the Chauchat, French and unloved. His heavy machine gun, until the Brownings arrived, was a Vickers or a Hotchkiss. But the pistol on his hip was American to the bone. John Browning designed it; the Army adopted it on 29 March 1911 after the Colt fired six thousand rounds in the endurance trial without a single stoppage, against thirty-seven for the nearest rival. Its heavy .45 cartridge came out of hard experience in the Philippines, where the Army had wanted more stopping power. It stayed the standard American sidearm for seventy-five years.

The figure is a Marine NCO in the Brodie helmet and gas-mask satchel of mid-1918, striding forward with the M1911 out at arm's length — a pistol is a close-range weapon, which tells you how near the Germans were in the trees of Belleau Wood. Group him with the men whose weapons the war made do: the Marine humping the French Chauchat and the Marine with the trench shotgun. Point them into the German infantry holding the far side of the wheat, and you have the fight itself.

W. Britain model 13073. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.