who said that the Luftwaffe didn't like to play? Meet Das Jägerspiel!

[Sternjaeger]

 

I found out about this interesting game some years ago when visiting the Unterschleissheim Museum in Munich, and I heard of it again from an Italian pilot who used to be based in Sicily and shared the airfield with the JG53, and told me how Luftwaffe pilots used to play this game to see who would pay for the coffee!

 

The kit consists of:

 

1) a deck of double faced cards with an aircraft silhouette on one side and the same silhouette with the correct aiming point, kind of aircraft kind and distance on the other

2) a set of plastic strips (for more players, but one is enough to play) which has two layers and a gap in the middle to slide the card in it: one side of the plastic strip has a reticle (much like the Revi gunsight), the other has a small circle, corresponding to the centre of the reticle on the other side.

 

The idea is that by looking at the silhouette, you need to estimate the kind of aircraft, the distance and consequently what sort of lead you would need to hit your target in the middle: you slide the card in and place your reticle where you think you should be aiming and then you turn the strip: the other side will show where the dot is in relation to the circle, and if you were right or not in your lead calculation.

 

Playing a game whilst learning some deflection shooting, pretty nifty, uh? 

Edited January 13, 2014 by Sternjaeger

[Emgy]

Wow, nice find!

[Rama]

Yep, nice stuff.

I wish  I could get one...

[Rama]

only drawback is that the cards have to be looked from a fixed distance to be practical

Nope. The relative size of the silhouette relative to the reticle size is enough to estimate the distance.

[Sternjaeger]

Yep, nice stuff.

I wish  I could get one...

 

they're quite rare, but pop up every now and then at private auctions.. I have been looking for one for a while, but prepare yourself for an expense above €300.. 

[Rama]

€300 would be ok... but as you said, the problem is more to have the selling information.

[Sternjaeger]

yeah, so far I've seen them only in Germany, let's see what this year will bring :-)

[Finkeren]

This is way cool and, I imagine, quite useful as well.

 

I've spent years learning deflection shooting in flight sims by trial and error. Fighter pilots at the time had no such luxury, but what they did have was a comparatively large amount of free time on their hands to fiddle with things like these.  

 

BTW: Is it just me, or does the recticle in the game look very different from the one we're used to in the simulated ReVi sights? I wonder why that is?

Edited January 14, 2014 by Finkeren

[Sternjaeger]

it's not too dissimilar, it just represents the internal portion of the reticle.

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 That game would be nice to have..more than nice Looks fun and educating. Think if a company could do a 2nd Edition of it, would buy it in an instant   

[II./JG27_Rich]

Very cool

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

S!

 

 That game would be nice to have..more than nice Looks fun and educating. Think if a company could do a 2nd Edition of it, would buy it in an instant   

First thing that crossed my mind too. Someone get a set and make a clone. Or update it slightly with 3d models and make it new again. You might not sell to anyone other than flight sim guys but hey, there's a few of them/us out there. Hopefully for less than the $700 originals. I'd have fun playing against my four year old daughter. She'd really get into it.

Edited April 26, 2014 by A1FltTrn=HerrMurf

[HagarTheHorrible]

How about someone clever make a small app or flash game that incorporates the same features ?

[Sternjaeger]

I've been looking into something similar actually, the hardest bit would be making the cards really.

[DKsvejseko]

Beats UNO by a mile..