Part prices in Germany

[tc4332]

When I was first in Germany (1958) the exchange rate was 12.50 DM to the pound but in camp we used BAFVs (British Armed Forces Vouchers). We used normal UK half pennies, pennies and threepenny bits. The rest was paper notes with penny values of three, six & twelve (shilling), then there were shilling values of 2, 5 &10, and pound values of 1 &5, iirc.
UK cigs were a shilling for 20 best and petrol was a shilling a gallon. But cigs and petrol were rationed.
We even had our own car registration system my first was Z754BZ.

[David's8]

Fascinating Ray, (honest!) I dont suspect there was much forgery/black market activity what with "Vouchers" and cigs at 5p per 20, eh?

[Johnmed]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Ditto, but flying not driving so not planning to do any shopping.
As it's to Munich the trip will include a look round the BMW factory and museum (if saying that is not against forum rules).

Ha. The BMW museum is fab. You'll enjoy it.

[tc4332]

Sorry, been in Southport for the weekend, we are going to be Great Grandparents.
No names, No packdrill.
There were some who did partake in the supply/demand system of turning a profit.
I knew a chap that only drew BAFVs on pay day and persuaded all his cronies to do the same. He then used his ration card, plus the ones borrowed on a permanent basis from the Orderly Office to purchase ciggys from the NAAFI shop. Proceeded down town to sell them, returned to camp and sold his DMarks to the other guys at a better exchange rate than the official therefore increasing the help he needed. Purchased more cigarettes, coffee and even packets of tea and selling them down town. He continued this cycle until he ran out of friends with BAFVs who wanted DMs. But was then able to continue from the next pay day.
Completely illegal and at the time we were still being told not to fraternise with the local population. Aah, but we were still young (18) and the girls were available and a jar of instant coffee or a packet of twenty worked better and cheaper than any amount of alcoholic beverages.
One day I might even tell you about the farmer and the spare loaves of sliced bread. And the bars of Fairy soap.

[Architex_mA8tey]

Originally Posted by tc4332

One day I might even tell you about the farmer and the spare loaves of sliced bread. And the bars of Fairy soap.

You get worse Ray hahaha

[tc4332]

Aah Yes, the Strange Tale of the Sliced Bread.
Back in 58 I was still only 18 and just like today very naive, not at all a man of the world.
But that has nothing to do with it at all.
I was based in a rather large workshop and being the only Army electrician there I was in charge of the German civilian electricians. They were a good lot of blokes but could not speak English and were forcing me to learn German. This meant that I could manage at this time to hold simple conversations. Like "pass me the screwdriver" and "where is the spanner".
Now for the story.
We went out on my second exercise, just the military no civilians, after all we were practising to be cannon fodder for the attacking Russian hordes. We were located on a farm to the North east of Hamburg, towards Peenemunde.
I managed to converse with the farmer and over the week we were there became quite friendly with him, his wife, the family dog and of course his two teenage daughters.
Now this is the point where you stop licking your lips 'cos this tale is nothing like that.
We were ready to depart and head back to base when I realised that we had about two hundred sliced loaves left so I gave these to the farmer with the idea that they would be fed to his pigs. Then after a rather emotional farewell off we went back to our base.
Some four months later I drove up to Denmark to visit some Danish friends ( I know, you still doubt it but I do have friends) and went via the farm. Wow!! I was made so welcome. It was wonderful. Hugs and kisses from the farmer's wife, even his daughters were overtly friendly. The whole scene made the extra miles worthwhile.
Whilst being dined in their best room the farmer opened the doors to this very large sideboard to show me the stack of sliced loaves in there.
By now my German had improved and I ascertained that the bread had not been fed to the pigs. Oh dear No. The family were slowly munching their gleeful way through them.
For us the bread was only fresh enough to eat for a couple of days but for them, especially as their memories of shortages were still close to the surface, it would have been wasteful to feed this wonderful white bread to the pigs.
Sadly I never ever saw them again. So I cannot tell you how long it took for them to empty the sideboard.

The Fairy soap tale will have to wait for another day, sorry.

And I must not forget about The Sugar Mine visit, and that one was actually reported in The Daily Mirror.