The eagle shield makes the imperial identity immediate, but the date puts this Barbarossa before his most famous crusading episode. Around 1175, his struggle was in Italy, where imperial ambition met the resistance of the Lombard cities.
The red-topped cap and white equipment are designed to be noticed. This Royal Military Police figure represents a different kind of military presence: directing, regulating and maintaining order rather than blending into the landscape.
The mixed clothing, beard and long rifle set this partisan apart from the regular soldiers around him. His 1944 date leads into one of the most difficult transitions of the war: liberation from occupation did not bring Greece an uncomplicated peace.
The landing is only the beginning of an airborne operation. Del Prado’s British sergeant, with rifle across his body and equipment ready for movement, is a useful reminder that the objective still had to be reached and held.
An air-force uniform does not necessarily mean a pilot. Del Prado’s WAAF airwoman represents the women whose communications, plotting and technical work helped an air force function, even though they were not its combat aircrew.
The distinctive helmet and camouflage smock carry the airborne identity. By 1944, however, that identity did not mean the soldier was about to jump: German paratroopers were also fighting prolonged ground battles.
The leather jacket gives this captain a very different appearance from a marching infantryman. It also opens a revealing question about French armour in 1940: how much work could one commander be expected to do inside a tank?
The dark coat and sailor’s cap make this a naval subject at once. They do not, however, identify a submarine crewman. Del Prado’s sailor is a chance to widen the naval story beyond the U-boats that dominate so many accounts.
A tank formation is easy to reduce to its vehicles. This Del Prado sergeant brings the scale back to a person—and requires one important identification: the subject is the American 2nd Armored Division, not the French 2e Division Blindée.
The tasselled cap catches the eye before the date does. Yet 1922 is the detail that makes this officer interesting: the Spanish Legion was still a young formation, and the setting was Morocco rather than the later Spanish Civil War.
