Thanks, that makes sense. I don’t think kids (at least boys) mind violence in fiction, as long as everyone gets their just desserts in the end!

Alun:

Sorry! I better not mention that being able to read the Daily Mail was actually my main reason for coming here at all …

Jakob:

You could be right about the Fw 187 — that’s a Spotto! point for you.

I realised that the auction house’s web site might have some more information and pictures, and it does (see the preceding page as well). It has a photo of the board for Das U-boot Spiel which looks like it may be a map (though perhaps not an accurate one) of Scapa Flow, ie implying the game is asymmetric. There’s also more detail about V Game, and they are V-1s (there’s a picture of the cover) and it does appear to be from Belgium. Their description reads:

WWII The V Game. Original children’s game devised possibly in Belgium (though bearing a French mark of Brevete S.G.O.G. 28620P VC) almost certainly during WWII and based on the concept of the V1 rocket. In original box with colour printed cartoon on the lid showing Hitler with a crown on his head sitting astride a V1 rocket surrounded by stars. Made from fairly crude card (consistent with the deprivation of the times) printed rules in French Flemish and English to inside lid (hence our attribution to Belgium). Box a little distressed but interior contents complete and in good order. A remarkable survivor and even more so if this does in fact date from the days when Belgium was occupied. The idea of the game is based on a sort of ‘tiddlywinks’ principle. Each player had a spring powered ‘launcher’ and a ‘V1′ (which was a bead drilled with a hole in the middle). Inside the box was a game board rather like a dartboard but with various round sections in concentric rings. The outer ring was worth 10 points and related to various German cities including Munich Frankfurt Mainz Essen etc. The next ring of six sections was Berlin itself (B-E-R-L-I-N) and if your V1 landed in one of those it was worth 25 points. The next ring was devoted to the ‘Hitler Gang’ of Goebbels Von Ribbetropp Von Rundstedd Von Pappen and Himmler. If you hit these it was worth 50 points. The ‘Bullseye’ was Hitler himself worth 100 points. The date of this game remains in doubt but it seems most probable that it was produced in wartime and under occupation - and if so would represent a remarkable act of courage by those who produced it. We would suggest that as the V1 is used as the basis of the game rather than the later V2 it would place the invention of this game at around 1944 at a time when the German occupation of Belgium was coming to an end but would have still been very real. If this is the case then the possession of the game would have been most unwise.We have been unable to trace any reference to this game

I would still suggest, however, that it’s unlikely to have been produced during the occupation (why would it have instructions in English?); a Belgian game revolving around launching V1s at German cities and leaders suggests to me that it’s an imaginary revenge for the V1 attacks on Antwerp, so October 1944 or later. (Though it would still need to be explained why V1s and not V2s which were more numerous at first; on the other hand there were more V1s overall and a lot more in February 1945 — 12 a day according to this.) Of course it would probably sell for less if they said that.

GTA - worse than the Nazis!

Also noted: the aircraft on the Fallschirmjaeger-spiel looks like a Focke-Wulf Fw187, which is a fairly obscure aircraft to use.