My mum & dad in the 80s had a Zanussi front loader, its the machine I grew up with and whilst it was doin its rinses/cool down it would drain some water out then refill.
I believe it is mainly the washcraft range that did this, the later grey panel models & my wdt1061 for example just fill to a high water level cooldown & drain!
My washcraft Z9191T does the same as the later grey panel models and just fills up (fill, tumble, fill, tumble etc) to a high level before draining out.
No its none of those, my mums literally during the cooldown phase would start filling with water then drain some out, then it would fill up again constantly mixing and diluting with fresh water. It would do this about 4 or 5 times.