Americans In Occupied Belgium 1914 1918

Belgium in the First World War--the first country invaded, the longest occupied, and when the war finally ended, the first forgotten. In 1914, Belgium was home to a large American colony which included representatives of American companies, artists, writers and diplomats with the American Legation. After the invasion, American journalists and adventurers flocked there to follow the action; military restrictions on travel were less stringent than in England or France. As the most industrialized country in Europe, Belgium depended upon trade and food imports to support its economy. The war isolated Belgium and wholesale starvation was imminent by the fall of 1914. Herbert Hoover and his Commission for Relief in Belgium raised funds to purchase and import food to sustain Belgium and, eventually, Occupied France as well. Idealistic American volunteers (including some Rhodes scholars) supervised food distribution in the occupation zone. Along the Western Front in Belgium, hundreds of Americans served (illegally) in the British and Canadian armies. This book tells the story of the German invasion, occupation and retreat from the perspective of Americans who were there.

Belgium in the First World War--the first country invaded, the longest occupied, and when the war finally ended, the first forgotten. In 1914, Belgium was home to a large American colony which included representatives of American companies, artists, writers and diplomats with the American Legation. After the invasion, American journalists and adventurers flocked there to follow the action; military restrictions on travel were less stringent than in England or France. As the most industrialized country in Europe, Belgium depended upon trade and food imports to support its economy. The war isolated Belgium and wholesale starvation was imminent by the fall of 1914. Herbert Hoover and his Commission for Relief in Belgium raised funds to purchase and import food to sustain Belgium and, eventually, Occupied France as well. Idealistic American volunteers (including some Rhodes scholars) supervised food distribution in the occupation zone. Along the Western Front in Belgium, hundreds of Americans served (illegally) in the British and Canadian armies. This book tells the story of the German invasion, occupation and retreat from the perspective of Americans who were there.

During WWI (1914-1918), the American-led Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) initiated, organized, and supervised the largest food relief program the world had ever seen. The CRB and its Belgian counterpart, the Comite National (CN), fed for four years nearly 10 million Belgians and northern French trapped behind German lines. Young, idealistic Americans volunteered to go into German-occupied Belgium to guarantee the relief food would not be taken by the Germans. These humanitarian crusaders had to maintain strict neutrality as they watched the Belgians suffer under the harsh German regime. WWI Crusaders is the first nonfiction book for general readers that tells in one volume the interlacing stories of German brutality, Belgian resistance, and the young Americans who went into German-occupied Belgium. The book covers August 1914 through May 1917, when the last Americans had to leave Belgium because of America's April entry into the war.It is a story few have heard.

Most have heard of the French Resistance during World War Two. Few are aware of the Belgian Resistance movements during the First World War and the enormous role they played in the defeat of the enemy. This book tells the story of those underground organisations in Belgium during the Great War and in particular the ÔPrisoner Help NetworkÕ. A very large proportion of the network were women. Other resistance organisations were lÕAssistance Discr te (The Discreet Assistance) and La Dame Blanche (The White Lady). The author's in-depth research using as a base, the recollections of New Zealand soldier Bert Hansen in particular and other Allied soldiers, allowed the details to be revealed for the first time. Learn who were those brave resistance people, what they did, how they did it and where they lived. They hid and cared for escaped allied soldiers in the face of a brutal occupation and saw the soldiers across the frontier into Holland to fight again. They were the true Obscure Heroes of Liberty.

During WWI, the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) initiated, organized, and supervised the largest food and relief drive the world had ever known. Working in concert with its counterpart in Belgium, the Comité National, the CRB fed and clothed for four years more than 9 million Belgians and northern French trapped behind German lines. Because the United States had declared its neutrality at the start of the war, young idealistic Americans volunteered to be CRB delegates and go into German-occupied Belgium to guarantee the imported food would not be taken by the Germans. The interlacing stories of German brutality, Belgian resistance, and the Americans of the CRB, all began back in those chaotic days of August 1914, when the Germans attacked Belgium on their way to France. Few could have guessed it then, but the invasion was a topping domino that caused a tumbling together of extraordinary people into a chain reaction of life-and-death situations far from the trenches and killing fields of World War I. And hanging in the balance were millions of civilian lives. It is a story that few have heard. The nonfiction Behind the Lines covers the time from August through December 1914. Using lively personal details, the book follows a handful of young CRB delegates; a twenty-two-year-old Belgian woman; two U.S. diplomats; a Belgian businessman and a priest who team up to fight the German occupation; and the head of the CRB, Herbert Hoover.

A seventeen-volume compilation of selected AEF records gathered by Army historians during the interwar years. This collection in no way represents an exhaustive record of the Army's months in France, but it is certainly worthy of serious consideration and thoughtful review by students of military history and strategy and will serve as a useful jumping off point for any earnest scholarship on the war. --from Foreword by William A Stofft.

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