An armored vehicle in winter was a steel icebox — unheated, and if anything colder than the open air, because metal steals warmth from anything it touches. Crews in the Ardennes needed cold-weather gear that would keep them alive on a frozen hull yet still let them move in a cramped fighting compartment, and the answer was the U.S. winter combat uniform: wool-lined bib overalls under the short, wind-resistant "tanker jacket." The jacket was so warm and practical that infantry and airmen coveted it too. Keeping the tank fighting also meant labor like this — hauling heavy ammunition cans up to the vehicle by hand to reload, again and again.

The figure trudges through the snow with a can in each hand, in the tanker jacket, bib overalls and a soft thermal cap under his helmet. He is the resupply hand of a winter armor diorama: bring him up to the Tanker Standing Gesturing and the Tanker with M3 Grease Gun, rearming their M4A3 Sherman.

W. Britain model 25216. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.