Staying Warm

Breagans Verified independent store

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The Ardennes winter of 1944-45 was one of the coldest in living memory, and it killed. Temperatures fell well below freezing, snow lay deep, and the American soldiers thrown in fro nt of the German offensive were often still in autumn kit — proper winter clothing sat in supply depots far to the rear, behind priority loads of fuel and ammunition. The result was staggering: trench foot and frostbite put more than fifteen thousand American men out of action during the campaign, a toll to rival German bullets. A fire in an oil drum was no small comfort. It was, sometimes, the difference between keeping your feet and losing your toes. The three GIs huddle over a makeshift brazier — a punctured oil drum with a fire inside — one cradling a canteen cup of hot coffee, one drawing on a cigarette, the third rubbing life back into his hands, all in snow-caked winter overcoats with their M1 Garands slung but within reach. It is a bivouac vignette that pairs naturally with the collection's other quiet moments: Chow Time, Taking a Break and Time for a Smoke. Grouped around a ruined farmyard or a roadside with the snow thick underfoot, they build the human side of the Bulge — the long cold waiting between the fighting. Model: BBA108 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 3 piece set Show more