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LET THE MUSIC SET YOU FREE: First Lieutenant Clair Cline of the 448th Bombardment Group wasn’t a professional instrument-maker, but he was a musician—and a handy woodworker with time to kill. During his time as a POW in Germany’s Stalag Luft I in 1944, Cline built a working violin from planks harvested from bed slats, aid crates, and table legs. His tools: broken glass, table knives, and glue scraped from underneath mess hall tables. The project took him just four months; pieces including a plastic chinrest were added after the war.
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Trench Art 101: How Servicemen Turned Trash Into Treasure During World War II
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