WWI Crusaders: A band of Yanks in German-occupied Belgium help save millions from starvation as civilians resist the harsh German rule. August 1914 to May 1917.

by Jeffrey B Miller

Overview

The true story of young, untested American volunteers who entered German-occupied Belgium during WWI (1914-1918) to attempt what had never been done before -- save an entire nation from starvation that was trapped in the middle of a world war. One of America's greatest humanitarian efforts is little-known today. WWI Crusaders brings the past to life by telling the personal stories behind the facts in an as-it's-happening style.

During WWI, the American-led, nongovernmental 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 Comité National (CN), fed for four years nearly 10 million Belgians and northern French trapped behind German lines. The relief efforts faced huge logistical challenges, international intrigues, and internal conflicts between the leaders of the CRB and CN.

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, known as CRB delegates, had to maintain strict neutrality as they watched the Belgians suffer under the harsh German regime. They also had to deal with a faction of Belgians who resented the Americans' presence and tried to limit their authority.

WWI Crusaders is the first 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 situation in German-occupied Belgium during the war 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.

Through lively personal stories, this nonfiction book follows a handful of young CRB delegates, a 22-year-old Belgian woman, two American diplomats, the leaders of a Belgian underground newspaper, and the founder of the CRB, who would become known to the world as the Great Humanitarian. His name was Herbert C. Hoover.

The book covers from the beginning of the war, August 1917, to May 1917, when the last Americans left Belgium because of America's April entry into the war. An extensive epilogue wraps up all major stories and people through the end of the war and beyond.

It is a story that few have heard.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780990689386
Publisher:	Milbrown Press
Publication date:	10/22/2018
Pages:	726
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.45(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey B. Miller has been a writer, editor, and author for more than 40 years. His career includes starting six magazines (city, regional, and national), being editor-in-chief of five inflight magazines, and director of communications for AAA Colorado. He is also the author of Stapleton International Airport: The First Fifty Years (Pruett Publishing, Boulder, CO, 1983), which was the first history book about a major U.S. airport; and co-author with Dr. Gordon Ehlers of Facing Your Fifties: Every Man's Reference to Mid-life Health (M. Evans & Co., New York, 2002), which was one of only three health books that Publishers Weekly included in its Best Books of 2002. In 2014, his WWI nonfiction Behind the Lines (Milbrown Press) was published. It detailed the chaotic and complex beginnings of the largest food relief drive the world had ever seen -- where a small band of Americans in the nongovernmental Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) helped save from starvation nearly 10 million Belgians and northern French who were trapped in German-occupied territory. Behind the Lines earned inclusion in Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2014 and the Kirkus Starred Review stated: An excellent history that should catapult Miller to the top tier or popular historians. (He's still waiting for the catapult!) Behind the Lines has also received numerous other national recognitions and reviews, and Miller was invited to speak at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. After three years of full-time research and writing (2015-2018), Miller finished WWI Crusaders (Milbrown Press), which tells the full story of the relief program in one volume. It follows a handful of young Americans who go into German-occupied Belgium, a 22-year-old Belgian woman, two U.S. diplomats, and two Belgians working in the underground. Miller became interested in this little-known incredible humanitarian relief program when his grandparents told him stories about it. His grandfather was one of the CRB men who went into German-occupied Belgium to supervise the relief efforts, and his grandmother was a 22-year-old Belgian woman who worked on the Belgian side of food relief. When they died in the 1980s, Miller received an inheritance of all their diaries, correspondence, and photos from WWI. That set Miller on a path of discovery not only about his family's role in the relief efforts, but also to learn more about the CRB, Belgium, and WWI. He ended up traveling across the country conducting research during multiple decades. He now has studied the lives of approximately 50 of the people who participated in the CRB. He has also studied the Belgian leaders of the underground newspaper, La Libre Belgique (The Free Belgium), and has included their story in WWI Crusaders. It has become Miller's passion and life's work to make sure America does not forget this tremendous story of heroism and humanity behind German lines. To honor all those who participated (willingly and unwillingly) in WWI, this new book, WWI Crusaders, will be officially published on November 11, 2018, which is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

Editorial Reviews

10/29/2018
Miller expands upon his previous volume (Behind Enemy Lines) to provide the complete story of the Commission for the Relief of Belgium, a private American-led relief organization that supervised the import and distribution of food to the people of German-occupied Belgium and Northern France, from its beginnings in 1914 through America’s entry into the war. Much of the book focuses on the volunteer American delegates who worked inside Belgium under commission chair Herbert Hoover, and who were harassed by the German military and always in danger of arrest. Meanwhile, German submarines sank numerous CRB ships and threatened to shut down the relief effort; the Allied military was not in favor of the operation and at one point accused Hoover himself of spying for the Germans. Among many impressive characters, Hoover stands out as an incredible organizer and powerful personality without whose efforts 75% of the population of Belgium might have faced starvation. Though its length will be daunting for most general readers, those with a serious interest in WWI history or the life of Herbert Hoover will find this lively and engaging book fascinating. (BookLife)

Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Starred Review:

. . . A tour-de-force history detailing a little-known World War I humanitarian rescue mission, led by a future American president.

During the early years of the First World War, an amazing organization, the Commission for Relief in Belgium, gathered together a group of idealistic young Americans to keep the people in German-occupied Belgium from starving. Popular historian Miller continues detailing the history of this organization, which was formed and run by none other than Herbert Hoover, who left his own successful business and mining-engineering interests to lead it. He and his intrepid CRB delegates constantly struggled with German military and governmental authorities and with the Belgian relief agency Comité National, but they managed to manipulate, cajole, bluff, and fight their way to providing the most extensive food relief program in modern history. They did so by preserving their absolute political neutrality and winning the respect and support of even the German aggressors. To succeed, Hoover and his band knew they had to be on the right side of worldwide public opinion: “Hoover’s understanding of this concept, and of the way the world’s news media worked, would serve him and his cause extremely well from the very beginning.” Miller delivers compelling portraits of young idealists who interrupted their lives to serve the CRB for no pay. He engagingly parallels this tale with the story of La Libre Belgique, a scrappy underground newspaper that continually poked the Germans in the eye; he shows how even though the Germans jailed and executed Belgian patriots associated with the paper, nothing could stop it from getting published. Miller is an accomplished writer who never gets in the way of his intriguing story, eliminating tiresome footnotes and in-text citations that might have detracted from the gripping historical narrative.

A magnum opus that celebrates the qualities of compassion, honor, and humanitarian virtue.

.

From the Publisher

★ 2018-09-07

Miller (Behind the Lines, 2014, etc.) offers the second volume of a tour-de-force history detailing a little-known World War I humanitarian rescue mission, led by a future American president.

During the early years of the First World War, an amazing organization, the Commission for Relief in Belgium, gathered together a group of idealistic young Americans to keep the people in German-occupied Belgium from starving. Popular historian Miller continues detailing the history of this organization, which was formed and run by none other than Herbert Hoover, who left his own successful business and mining-engineering interests to lead it. He and his intrepid CRB delegates constantly struggled with German military and governmental authorities and with the Belgian relief agency Comité National, but they managed to manipulate, cajole, bluff, and fight their way to providing the most extensive food relief program in modern history. They did so by preserving their absolute political neutrality and winning the respect and support of even the German aggressors. To succeed, Hoover and his band knew they had to be on the right side of worldwide public opinion: "Hoover's understanding of this concept, and of the way the world's news media worked, would serve him and his cause extremely well from the very beginning." Miller delivers compelling portraits of young idealists who interrupted their lives to serve the CRB for no pay. He engagingly parallels this tale with the story of La Libre Belgique, a scrappy underground newspaper that continually poked the Germans in the eye; he shows how even though the Germans jailed and executed Belgian patriots associated with the paper, nothing could stop it from getting published. Miller is an accomplished writer who never gets in the way of his intriguing story, eliminating tiresome footnotes and in-text citations that might have detracted from the gripping historical narrative.

A magnum opus that celebrates the qualities of compassion, honor, and humanitarian virtue.

Kirkus Reviews