MPN11,
... we happy, hard-drinking, post-WW2 guys have to thank your generation for preserving the Empire...
Grateful thanks accepted - but we just happened to be the watch on deck when the trumpet sounded ! (and then gave it all away in the end).
...and preventing us having to drink sake or some German muck...
Never tried sake, and would take issue with the "muck". We lapped up Moselle by the case when we were at Geilenkirchen (Dm2 - and four Pfennig back on the bottle). Even now we are partial to supermarket Niersteiner and Hock (there is little German red wine), but draw the line at "Liebfraumilch".
On the beer front, in the Mess the popular draught was "DAB" - Dortmunder Aktien Bier - the "Aktien" being the same as that produced by your glycerine. You ordered a "point 2" or a "point 5" (roughly a half-pint or a pint). Good stuff, and no hangover I noticed.
Danny.