COBI British Special Air Service Set 2036

COBI's British Special Air Service set is built from 30 blocks and contains three figures from three different units: an SAS soldier in tropical uniform with a beard and a Sten gun, a young British infantryman of the European theatre with a Bren gun and binoculars, and a soldier of the British Indian Army with a two-colour Lee-Enfield rifle. Stands and scenery elements are included, and every figure has a new face print.

The third figure represents two and a half million men

The Indian soldier in this box is the least known and, in numbers, the most significant.

The British Indian Army of the Second World War grew to around 2.5 million men, and every one of them was a volunteer. There was no conscription in India. It was the largest volunteer army in history, and it remains so.

They fought in North Africa against Rommel, in East Africa, in Italy — where Indian divisions were at Monte Cassino — in Iraq, in Syria, and in the long campaign in Burma that halted the Japanese advance at Imphal and Kohima. Around 87,000 were killed. Thirty-one were awarded the Victoria Cross.

For decades afterwards this was barely mentioned in British accounts of the war, and it went largely unmarked in India too, where the men had fought for a colonial power that was about to leave. The Commonwealth memorial in London was not built until 2002.

The SAS

Founded in 1941 in North Africa by David Stirling, on the argument that small parties operating deep behind the lines could destroy more aircraft on the ground than fighters could shoot down. It worked — SAS raids on Axis airfields accounted for several hundred aircraft — and the beard on the figure is accurate: shaving water was not a priority in the desert.

In the COBI range

One of the Historical Collection figure sets, all at the same scale and designed to combine. Set 2050 is the Afrika Korps, their opponents.

Specifications

Pieces: 30 · Figures: 3 with accessories · Stands and scenery included
Box dimensions: 13 × 3.7 × 10.5 cm (5.1 × 1.5 × 4.1 in)