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Reading his book - 'Cars are my Life' you get the impression that he used his commisions during the war to as a chance to experiment with outrageous designs. Depressingly, war is a time when many great engineering advances are made.
From talking to my Grandfathers - one German, one English I got an interesting perspective on the war. Not everyone has the strength to give up everything, leave family behind and start a new life from scratch in a foreign country and generally people try to make the best of an awful situation by trying to keep their families together and attempting to hang on to the way of life they had before the war broke out - however difficult it gets.
My German grandfather, like many in Germany didn't approve of Hitler or the war but nonetheless was drafted and used it as a chance to ride motorbikes (which he loved) as a despatch rider - this also allowed him to travel (another great love) and to make cheeky detours to visit home. He told me a great story once about turning up to a top secret radar base on the coast and finding the place in disarray - the english had been in the night and stolen it!
My English grandfather also has a love for travel and motoring and recalls with great glee how he stole Mercedes cars and BMW bikes from German bases in Italy so that he and the lads could enjoy themselves a bit on their nights off.
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