The German war effort in the Middle East is not well known today, and arguably its greatest success was in supplying some top class commanders for the local Ottoman forces. However in 1917 it sent a brigade group to fight in Palestine, and this set represents some of these men who became casualties.
The Germans were issued with tropical helmets similar to that of the British - too similar in fact, for the commanding officer ordered that they be replaced by a soft field cap to avoid confusion. Still they were sometimes worn both at the front and in the rear, and all the figures in this set wear them. Since every figure is lying on their stomach, much detail of the uniform is not visible, but what can be seen is fairly accurate, if not always well realised. Several of the men seem to have a small cylindrical container under their packs, an item which does not appear in any contemporary photographs but which looks like the German gas mask case of a later war, and is therefore completely out of place here.
As can clearly be seen from the scans, some of these men seem not to be casualties, but are rather just lying down. For the rest, there are various noticeable problems with their anatomy, particularly unnaturally twisted limbs and crushed areas of the body. Whether by design or not, this is not inappropriate for such figures. In general though the poses are reasonable.
The usual poor quality of MIR sculpting is evident in this set, with much detail missing or vague. Such characteristics as featureless and crude weapons and badly realised faces are apparent, and the overall standard is among the lowest of any manufacturer. With holes in many bases and some extra blobs of resin, these are anything but attractive, though some may wish to remove the bases entirely to improve their look.
Sets made up solely of casualties do have a place in this hobby, but only so long as there are also sets of active soldiers for the same unit. MIR have made a commendable effort to portray unusual subjects such as this which are new to plastic/resin, but until someone produces a set of standing figures to match there is really little value to them.