Many Things.
Yamagata Ken,
I'm afraid it was all political, Ken. Although people like Joe and Zed-Zed knew they might be living more comfortably than in their ravaged homelands, they didn't accept repatriation, much as they might have wished to go home.
They simply feared to return. In all the Soviet bloc countries, ex-prisoners of the West were politically suspect. They had been exposed to western values and were all tainted by the association. They were far from welcome, treated as pariahs, and lucky to escape imprisonment - or worse. Many had married British girls and were allowed stay in Britain, and I don't think we actually deported any who wished to remain.
Russian prisoners sent back (against their will) to Russia mainly finished in the Gulags. Regrettably, we seem to have had a hand in this forced repatriation (in Austria) but I forget details. ........................D
Blacksheep,
"Automatic Propeller Synchronisers" would do fine on a tug with two tow pylons ! Seriously, the Store-bashers were a race apart; anything could be made to disappear if it were opportune that it should do so (but I think that our elephant in Burma was a bit too much even for them).................D
Geriaviator,
There were 12 Pice to an Anna (I never saw a Pice). On my reckoning, the bowls were 3/6 each, or £7-8 today. The bazaar tinsmith would have been quite capable of beating a piece of the Lib into any shape required, but the metal would have been too thin for a cooking utensil. I suppose the old arms factories (like Dum-Dum) did the melting down and casting.
(Our parents had had to "make do and mend" all their lives). Plenty of shots in my locker still (Arclite01 to note - thanks for kind words !).
IWM should be ashamed of itself...............D.
BEagle,
Can't do better than Kipling:
"I do not love my country's foes - nor call 'em 'eroes. Still,
Where is the sense in 'ating those,
'Oom you are paid to kill ?".........D.
Thanks to you all for keeping the pot boiling,
Danny.