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My father told me how his mother-in-law used to send him food parcels, but was never very good at wrapping them. The first time he received one, most of the contents were missing so he was told to go to the local Royal Mail sorting office to see if the rest of the parcel was there, so off he went with some army pals.

On arrival at the sorting office, the man in charge took my father and his friends to another room where, stacked from floor to ceiling where not only parcels, but items of clothing, food, tobacco etc. that had escaped their wrapping. "Please take what you want", said the man, "I haven't any room to store much more". Needless to say they went home with lots of goodies. As he was billeted in several areas around the country, this became a good scam to get more cakes, ciggies and other items to supplement the army diet.

Also referring to army diet - my father says that the only time they had decent food was when they were in Germany at the end of the war and had captured a POW who had been a chef who was immediately commandeered to cook the rations!

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