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Transcription: [00:15:13]
{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
-- But, for the personal lives, it was quite an interruption. As I said, I had to move to another location, the officers had to move. And so I think it delayed the research and development part of the program for several months.

[00:15:28]
And I mentioned earlier already, the biggest loss in my opinion was really the death of Walter Thiel.

[00:15:35]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Yeah, I think in that raid they really intended to attack the settlement. Therefore, were too far south to drop much on the test stands.

[00:15:45]
But, uh - so you didn't notice those other raids. I gather that in 1944 you had some raid --

[00:15:51]
daylight raids from American bombers? [[crosstalk]] They were smaller --

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Well, of course you had raids, all over the country, all the time, ja? So it was nothing unusual. You went in the bunker, you waited until it was over, and then everything was back to normal again.

[00:16:05]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Did you - Was that disruptive in terms of work load? The air raid warnings?

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Well, of course during the daytime raids you had to go in a shelter,

[00:16:14]
and people normally were encouraged to do that. Not to stay at their design boards or in their offices. So in that sense it was an interruption.

[00:16:22]
On the other hand, I don't think it had a major effect. Because again, the production work was going on somewhere else anyway, ja?

[00:16:31]
So we didn't do all the new developments - all the new work - that we otherwise possibly could have done. But I don't think that would have affected the whole project in any major way.

[00:16:44]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
OK, I don't know how long to go on. It's getting on to 10 to 6, but umm, [[crosstalk]] maybe we could just talk --

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
I didn't even bring my watch.

{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
It's 10 to--

[[Click]]

[00:16:55]
{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
And I mentioned Prasthofer earlier. I think you don't have him on this list right now. He first went to France and worked with the French for a while, --

[00:17:03]
-- after Peenemünde. And he was just a design engineer in Peenemünde, so he may not have a lot of specific information you were interested in.

[00:17:13]
I think Heimburg has some pretty good overall information.

[00:17:17]
And von Thiesenhausen, whom you mentioned earlier, in the area of ground equipment. So he worked in that area.

And he is normally also a pretty good and pretty fast talker.

[00:17:28]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Mhmm (Agree). OK, now as far as the question of finishing this up, you-- So as - uh -

[00:17:36]
Did anything stand out about the last few months at Peenemünde?

[00:17:41]
In late '44, early '45? Was it more difficult to operate at that point, than ever? Or ? --

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
It became more and more difficult. Particularly also of course in the production area, ja?

[00:17:54]
They had very often shortages of parts, and of course even if it is just one part, you get - don't get in from the thousands of parts you need, you have to hold up your production line.

[00:18:05]
And that happened quite often. And it was not too bad in Peenemünde itself, where I was still located and stationed at that time.

[00:18:14]
Of course we didn't get an awful lot of new research and development work done. So that was certainly also slowed down quite a bit.

[00:18:23]
And towards the end of the war, I even think starting early in '44, most people became convinced that Germany had lost the war.

[00:18:32]
And that of course really depressed the spirit. And people planned more for "Well, what are we going to do next? What are we going to undertake once the war is over?"

[00:18:44]
And, there was finally an arrangement. I think it was basically even arranged by the SS --

[00:18:53]
-- to take 500 of the key people and move them south. Move them to southern Germany, to Oberammergau, Garmisch-Partenkirchen. And that happened in, uh-