The U.S. military distributed to soldiers and sailors more than four hundred thousand Handicraft Kits, which included materials for leatherwork, metal and plastic forming, clay modeling, and wood carving. They were particularly valued by men who were stationed in isolation, such as antiaircraft gunners or the crew of transport ships. One officer said of the program that “the soldier who lacks a hobby is the man who tends to break down on D-Day.”69 This activity was mirrored on the home front. As factories were converted to military purposes and rationing set in, magazines encouraged their
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