The winter of 1942-43 was the low point of the German war in the East — Stalingrad lost, the front reeling — but in February and March 1943 the newly formed SS Panzer Corps struck back and retook the city of Kharkov in a sharp counteroffensive, one of Germany's last clean operational victories on the Eastern Front. The SS troops in that fight wore a reversible hooded winter over-parka, white on one face and camouflage on the other, roomy enough to pull on over battle equipment. Collectors and modelers have come to call it the "Kharkov parka" after the battle where it became a familiar sight.

Shown from behind, the grenadier wears the grey Kharkov parka with the hood down and an MG 42 slung across his back, canteen and mess tin at his belt — a machine-gunner moving between positions. He belongs with the other Kharkov-parka SS figures: the Rifleman Advancing and the Grenadier Getting Up to Move. Unsling his gun into the "Hitler's Buzz Saw" MG42 Team and you have the weapon in action. A winter Eastern-Front diorama in white-and-grey is the natural home for all of them.

W. Britain model 25069. 1/30 scale, matte-painted metal. Single figure — a Waffen-SS grenadier in a Kharkov winter parka with a slung MG 42. Boxed.