The term Panzergrenadier was introduced into the German Army in 1942, when the ordinary infantry were rebranded as ‘grenadiers’. Panzergrenadiers were infantry that were motorised, so had trucks or other vehicles to move them, and were naturally better suited to operate alongside fast-moving tanks, for example.

As usual we have here a game piece of five figures in four poses which are arrayed on a single large base as seen here. There are also separate bases for each, which we have used for our photograph. All wear the same uniform; a helmet with cover, a smock with drawstring neck tie and trousers tucked into long boots. The smock has no hood, which suggests an earlier date such as 1942, and the boots tend to the same conclusion, though these would work for the later years also. Two men carry the common MP40 submachine gun, another has the MG34 machine gun and the second figure in our picture holds an StG 44 assault rifle, which were all excellent weapons, but the assault rifle brings the date of the set forward a bit to 1943 at the earliest. Every man here has a full set of assault equipment, including ammunition pouches appropriate to the weapon he carries.

The poses are all fine, and the quality of sculpting is of the usual extraordinarily high quality we have long expected of Zvezda. Detail on weapons is just superb, and while all the poses require multiple parts to achieve, they fit together with perfect engineering, so no need for glue. Sets like this extend the original range of the Art of Tactic game system to beyond the opening months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, but the quality is still just as good.