The last mile undid the kitchen. The field kitchen cooked hot and cooked well, but it could not come forward, so the food finished its journey on two men's backs. The German answer was the Essenträger — a double-skinned flask with an enamelled liner and a rope gasket in the lid, built to hold heat. Ration parties went out every day, usually at night because that was less lethal, and came back carrying twenty to thirty kilos. Depending on how far it was and how bad the route, the food arrived cold anyway. Some of the men who went for it did not come back.

Four pieces: two men and two Essenträger. Look at their heads. One is in a soft field cap — that is the kitchen end of the walk. The other is in a Stahlhelm with a cigar clamped in his teeth, and that is the other end. Between them on the ground are the flasks that were supposed to keep the difference warm. In a diorama it runs straight out of the field kitchen, past Music to Peel By where the potatoes came from. The infantryman advancing is what the food was for — and what happened when it stopped arriving.

W. Britain model 23102. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Four-piece set — two German infantrymen with two insulated food carriers. Limited edition of 400 sets. Boxed.