Rare World War Two board game bought by Essex museum

The two German board games are extremely rare as a pair

A rare World War Two board game made in Germany has been bought at auction by an Essex museum.

The Eagle Air Defence game is believed to be the only surviving example in the world and was developed by an officer of the German Luftwaffe in 1941.

The House on the Hill Toy Museum in Stansted Mountfitchet purchased the game for over £600 at an auction.

"I've been looking for this particular game for over 40 years," said the museum owner Alan Goldsmith.

"There's two games this company made, one called 'Dogfight' and this 'Eagle Defence' one.

"When [the Allies] bombed Dresden and burnt the factory down all the games went with it, other than the ones that were sold before them, so they're extremely rare."

He added: "You have 88m guns and one person is defending the Fatherland, the other person is the English bomber pilot.

Everyone's been searching for it and of course they're worth more as a pair, which we've now got Alan Goldsmith

"Rather like snakes and ladders the person with the 88m gun shoots down the British bombers."

Alan, whose museum has over 500 other board games, admitted collecting was 'a disease which I've got quite badly'.

Despite the £600 price tag for the game, which translates as 'Adler Luftverteidigungs Spiel', he believed he had got a bargain.

"Everyone's been searching for it and of course they're worth more as a pair, which we've now got," he said.

"We bought the other one many years ago and have been looking for this one for 40 years and it's extremely rare.

"Plus, games are getting very collectable at the moment."