Ap the Sergeant

The American rifle squad was twelve men, and the sergeant was its brain. Where the German squad was built around a machine gun, the U.S. squad was built around riflemen and their leader: a staff sergeant who controlled a formation of twelve — himself, an assistant squad leader, a two-man scout element, a three-man BAR team, and a handful of riflemen with their M1 Garands. It was his job to read the ground, send the scouts, position the automatic rifle, and drive the whole thing forward by voice and example. A squad was only as good as the man running it, and that man was almost always a sergeant like this one — the backbone the whole unit rested on.

The sergeant strides forward, .45 Thompson held ready across his body, net-covered helmet and herringbone field jacket, the black-and-white "Indian Head" shoulder patch of the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division marking him and the whole American Patrol set. He is the hub of his squad: fall him in with the men he leads, the Advancing Rifleman and the BAR Gunner, under his platoon commander the Lieutenant. Arranged as a squad on the move — scouts out front, BAR on a flank, the sergeant in the middle calling the shots — the American Patrol set makes a diorama that actually shows how American infantry fought.

Model: DD398 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set