As in any other army, Germany’s mountain troops were elite light infantry that received all the usual training plus a great deal of additional instruction on operating in challenging terrain, including but not limited to mountains. As a result, they were often deployed into areas where the usual supply options available to regular infantry were not practical, so when other units could expect support and supply from local depots and logistics vehicles, the Gebirgsjäger was expected to carry a considerable amount of kit himself, and still move and fight. Support from tanks and heavy guns was also often impossible, so the men often had to carry whatever weapons and ammunition they needed, or at best they might be able to call on a limited supply brought up by mules or light vehicles. Each soldier also needed to be familiar with survival techniques, and be self-sufficient as much as possible, all of which helped to engender a high degree of pride in their own abilities and effectiveness. They fought on virtually every front during the war, but it was in the mountains and other tough environments that they excelled and showed their worth most clearly.

It is hardly a surprise that this set depicts these men in their most obvious environment – mountains or other extreme environments. The uniform of the Gebirgsjäger was much like that of the rest of the army, but all the men here wear some sort of camouflage suit, or else an anorak and over-trousers. Detail is not clear, but this winter clothing looks good to us, which covers all of the uniform apart from the headgear, which in most cases is the famous Bergmütze peaked cap. This was an iconic item for the mountain troops, and worn with pride, but in 1943 it was largely copied by the new M43 cap, which was much more widely issued. However, the M43 had a larger peak, which does not seem to be present here, so these all look like the classic Bergmütze to us. What did surprise us was the fact that only two of the poses here wear the ordinary steel helmet, because all of the poses look to be in combat, and we would have thought that the men would have chosen to wear the steel helmet when in action. Rockfalls and splinters of rock from enemy shelling added to the hazards that made a helmet so important, so while there are many photos showing men dressed in the cap while on the march, we would have expected most if not all of these fighting poses to wear a helmet instead, since most have one tied to their kit already.

As we have said, the poses all look to be fighting ones, and represent the usual infantry poses for the period, with advancing and firing examples, plus one man throwing a grenade and another handling ammunition. The last man, who we assume to be an officer, is using binoculars and has drawn what looks like a pistol, but could also be a flare gun such as the Leuchtpistole 34. If it is a pistol then that is not a great choice as it is a short-range weapon, but as a flare gun it makes more sense. We particularly liked the man holding the ice pick and ammunition case, but did not warm to the kneeling man with the machine gun. This is because it is hard to understand what he is doing. Certainly he is not firing the weapon since it has neither a magazine nor a belt fitted, and in any case to be most effective it should be fired while resting on a bipod at least, not from the hip.

Mountain troops were routinely issued the same Kar98K rifle as everyone else, although a shorter version, the 33/40, was also issued. The rifles here are about 17 mm in total length, which makes them a little longer than the Kar98K, and certainly much too long for the 33/40, so must be representing the former, which is fine. The third figure in our top row is using a submachine gun – either the MP38 or MP40 (detail is inadequate to identify with certainty) – which is another favourite weapon of German infantry sets, and the last two figures in our second row also carry one. Certainly these weapons were issued to mountain troops, but mostly just to squad leaders, senior NCOs and front-line officers, so having three of the eight poses here carrying one is considerably overrepresenting their frequency. Apart from the pistol or flare gun of the officer, and the stick grenades some are using or have tucked into their belts, this leaves just the two machine guns to discuss. Again, the usual machine gun issued was the same as in the rest of the army, so the MG34 and later the MG42, but the weapon being used by the prone machine gunner in the top row is neither, and presented us with some difficulty. In the end we cannot confirm what weapon this is supposed to be, though with the top-mounted magazine it has some similarities with the Czech CB-26 family of weapons, though the rest of it does not match this identification. Another curious aspect is that it rests on a monopod, and no general issue machine guns in the German army used such a thing, so this is a real mystery to us. The other machine gun, held by the kneeling figure in row two, is also hard to identify. Detail is pretty poor, but we think this is meant to be an MG34, though a fairly poor one if so. That at least would be a sensible choice.

The nature of their activities meant the men often had to carry a great deal of kit and specialist tools, and this starts with the large, well-filled rucksack worn here by every man except the prone machine gunner. While this is another classic item, we would again speculate on how often this was worn when actually in action, since its weight and bulk would not help a soldier’s effectiveness. It is unclear what the procedure was in these cases, and the men could have been taken by surprise, but we felt the rucksacks were more about identifying these men as mountain troops rather than reflecting real practice in a fight. Several of the poses have snow shoes attached to the rucksack (the officer is wearing his), and several also have an ice pick and/or a length of rope round the trunk. Standard infantry items such as the bread bag, mess tin, water bottle and bayonet scabbard complete the equipment found on these men, and they should also have the standard ammunition pouches on their belt, though these are hidden on most of the riflemen.

We have already mentioned the fairly poor detail on the machine guns and other weaponry, and this is repeated on the rest of the figures. The detail is usually there, but often not very clear, and this is particularly apparent on some of the kit and on the caps, which are almost plain. The clothing is well done, being baggy and to an extent shapeless, as it should be, but these are not the best figures to examine close-up, and in places the plastic has not filled the mould properly (one of the two copies of the grenade man on each sprue has the ice pick only partly formed). We also found a fair bit of flash, sometimes a considerable amount, and some filled-in areas like the officer’s left arm, so these will take a lot of cleaning up before they are ready for battle.

There are some nice design details to be found in this set, such as the fact that most of the poses are either wearing snow goggles, or else have them on their cap, and one pose appears to wear a togue under his cap for extra warmth. Also the officer, who has been given the case for his binoculars, has removed his mitten in order to hold his pistol or flare gun.

The fairly unclear detail on these figures may be down to their production in 1/32 scale also, since the depth of detail should reflect the ultimate size of the piece, but sculpting for multiple scales makes this impossible. Although we were not impressed by the kneeling machine gunner pose, it is not too bad, and accuracy issues such as the wearing of helmets and rucksacks when in action are probably up for debate anyway. We should observe however that our counts of the number of each pose must be taken as guidelines only, and what you find in your copy of the set will probably be different. This is because each sprue in the box we reviewed had only nine figures on it (see sprue image), suggesting production problems seriously damaged the tenth to the point where it had to be removed. To compensate, we found four random loose figures in our box, so while our numbers for the amount of each pose do not add up to 40, we did indeed find 40 figures in the box! What four extra figures you get is probably random.

In conclusion then, this is a reasonable set of mountain troops equipped and clothed for mountain service. There are some accuracy issues around actual usage in combat, some decent action poses but not great detail, so not a great set but by no means unusable.