My father was a Mess Sergeant in the Army R&R camp in the Darwin Peninsula region of Australia, supporting the troops in New Guinea. A couple of his stories I remember:

He and his buddies would often take advantage of the Aussie government's bounty on rabbits by taking a Jeep out into the countryside at night, turning on the headlights, and then (ahem) dispatching all the rabbits that showed up. They could get sixpence a piece from the government agent, which they then used to buy a pint at the local pub. Ironically, the Aussie government would then turn around, skin and dress the rabbits and then sell them back to the US Army. The Army then delivered the rabbits to the mess hall where they were cut up and served as "Southern Fried Chicken" to the GIs. They were always careful to burn the boxes the rabbits were packed in, as Americans were a bit leery of eating "cute little bunnies". This ruse finally backfired when one day a new private forgot to burn the boxes, and after that, they could hardly ever get the GIs to even eat REAL chicken, because they thought they were getting rabbit!

Harold F Murray