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Yanks behind the Lines
“This is a powerful work of history, as informative as it is dramatically gripping. An impressive blend of painstaking historical scholarship and riveting storytelling.”—Kirkus Reviews More than nine million soldiers died in World War I. At the same time, a US-led effort saved nearly ten million civilians from starvation behind the lines during the German occupation, yet one of America’s greatest humanitarian efforts is virtually unknown today. In this gripping book, Jeffrey B. Miller tells the remarkable history of two American and Belgian citizen-created organizations that led a massive food relief program for civilians trapped in German-occupied Belgium and northern France.
Herbert Hoover, then a successful international businessman, was the driving force behind the effort, coercing and bullying the governments of Germany, Great Britain, France, and the United States to allow a group of idealistic young volunteers to organize in occupied Belgium and coordinate the distribution of tons of food and clothing to desperate Belgians. These crusaders, known as CRB delegates, had to maintain strict neutrality as they watched the Belgians suffer under the harsh German regime. Miller tells compelling stories of German brutality, Belgian relief efforts, and the idealistic Americans who went into German-occupied Belgium from October 1914 up to May 1917, when they were forced to leave after the April entry into the war of the United States.
Yanks interweaves the history of the time with fascinating personal stories of volunteers, diplomats, a young Belgian woman who started a dairy farm to feed Antwerp’s children, the autocratic head of the Belgian relief organization, and the founder of the American organization, who would become known to the world as the Great Humanitarian and later, largely because of his work in Belgium and post-war Europe, would become the thirty-first president of the United States. Visit the book ’ s website Watch the book trailer
Herbert Hoover, then a successful international businessman, was the driving force behind the effort, coercing and bullying the governments of Germany, Great Britain, France, and the United States to allow a group of idealistic young volunteers to organize in occupied Belgium and coordinate the distribution of tons of food and clothing to desperate Belgians. These crusaders, known as CRB delegates, had to maintain strict neutrality as they watched the Belgians suffer under the harsh German regime. Miller tells compelling stories of German brutality, Belgian relief efforts, and the idealistic Americans who went into German-occupied Belgium from October 1914 up to May 1917, when they were forced to leave after the April entry into the war of the United States.
Yanks interweaves the history of the time with fascinating personal stories of volunteers, diplomats, a young Belgian woman who started a dairy farm to feed Antwerp’s children, the autocratic head of the Belgian relief organization, and the founder of the American organization, who would become known to the world as the Great Humanitarian and later, largely because of his work in Belgium and post-war Europe, would become the thirty-first president of the United States. Visit the book ’ s website Watch the book trailer
- GenresHistory
296 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2020
1 person is currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey B. Miller
3 books6 followersJeffrey B. Miller is proud to say that he's written three books that have become Best Books of the Year (one for Publishers Weekly, two for Kirkus Reviews). He's been a writer, editor, and author for more than forty 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.
As for books, he has specialized in writing nonfiction books that bring the subject to life for general readers. He is 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.
More recently, he's the author of three books on the same topic -- America's little-known humanitarian aid that saved nearly 10 million civilians trapped behind the lines in German-occupied Belgium and northern France during World War I. It was through the nongovernmental Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB). The three books are:
1. Behind the Lines, (self-published by Milbrown Press), 480 pages, 2014. It became a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014, with the starred review stating: "An excellent history that should catapult Miller to the top tier of popular historians." The book covers the chaotic beginnings of the CRB food relief, August 1914 through December 1914. In 2021, the Eric Hoffer Book Awards named it the Best Self-Published Book of the Year.
2. WWI Crusaders (self-published by Milbrown Press), 761 pages, 2018. It also became a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2018. The starred review stated: "A tour-de-force history. . . gripping historical narrative. . . A magnum opus that celebrates the qualities of compassion, honor, and humanitarian virtue." A 2018 Bronze Medal winner in
Foreword Magazine's War & Military category. The book covers the full story in great detail, from August 1914 through May 1917 when the last American CRB "delegates" had to leave Belgium because of America's April entry into the war.
3. Yanks behind the Lines (Rowman & Littlefield), 300-pages, October 22, 2020. It earned a Publishers Weekly BookLife Editor's Pick, and won the Colorado Book Awards in the History category. This is a concise overview, organized thematically with chapters on every critical issue. Individual stories are interwoven with the bigger picture of the war and the harsh German rule in occupied Belgium and northern France.
He is currently working on a new book, Deadly News: Life and death with an underground newspaper during World War I.
As for books, he has specialized in writing nonfiction books that bring the subject to life for general readers. He is 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.
More recently, he's the author of three books on the same topic -- America's little-known humanitarian aid that saved nearly 10 million civilians trapped behind the lines in German-occupied Belgium and northern France during World War I. It was through the nongovernmental Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB). The three books are:
1. Behind the Lines, (self-published by Milbrown Press), 480 pages, 2014. It became a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014, with the starred review stating: "An excellent history that should catapult Miller to the top tier of popular historians." The book covers the chaotic beginnings of the CRB food relief, August 1914 through December 1914. In 2021, the Eric Hoffer Book Awards named it the Best Self-Published Book of the Year.
2. WWI Crusaders (self-published by Milbrown Press), 761 pages, 2018. It also became a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2018. The starred review stated: "A tour-de-force history. . . gripping historical narrative. . . A magnum opus that celebrates the qualities of compassion, honor, and humanitarian virtue." A 2018 Bronze Medal winner in
Foreword Magazine's War & Military category. The book covers the full story in great detail, from August 1914 through May 1917 when the last American CRB "delegates" had to leave Belgium because of America's April entry into the war.
3. Yanks behind the Lines (Rowman & Littlefield), 300-pages, October 22, 2020. It earned a Publishers Weekly BookLife Editor's Pick, and won the Colorado Book Awards in the History category. This is a concise overview, organized thematically with chapters on every critical issue. Individual stories are interwoven with the bigger picture of the war and the harsh German rule in occupied Belgium and northern France.
He is currently working on a new book, Deadly News: Life and death with an underground newspaper during World War I.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2021
The author had a personal interest in telling this unique story and I appreciated his research. When Germany marched into Belgium 1914 local citizens were ingenious to open a northern dike creating a 2 mile wide divide, which kept half of the tiny nation temporarily safe. Future American president Herbert Hoover, living in England, rises to assist humanity in a time of need.
January 1, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/yanks-behind-the-lines-how-the-commission-for-relief-in-belgium-saved-millions-from-starvation-during-world-war-i-by-jeffrey-b-miller/
A few months ago I was showing off the delights of Leuven a friend who has recently moved to Brussels, and challenged her to guess which American president has a square named after him in the city. If you don’t already know, I confidently predicted, you won’t get it in your first ten guesses. I was right. The story of how future president Herbert Hoover co-ordinated the delivery of food to occupied Belgium during the First World War is not well known outside this country, and indeed is a fading memory even here.
This book is a brief but detailed history of the effort an amazing triumph of non-governmental diplomacy and organisation, with food bought in the UK and distributed to the Belgians (and northern French) living under occupation. Hoover had to fight turf wars with other American do-gooders, and establish clear demarcation with the Belgian relief committee about how the distribution was to managed; but those issues pale into insignificance in comparison with the need to get the British and Germans to allow the effort to proceed in the first place despite being locked in vicious war.
The Germans come out as the bad guys, no matter how you look at it. When the Commission for Relief in Belgium complained to the military governor that German soldiers were mistreating their staff, he refused to believe them and sent one of his own men to observe the situation on the ground. The undercover German soldier was beaten up, arrested and jailed by his own comrades who refused to believe his story.
A small team of young Americans, mostly young men, supervised the relief operation on the ground. The recruitment process was basically any Rhodes scholar, or other upper-class white male American student in western Europe, who spoke decent French (as most well-educated Westerners did in those days). That obviously meant that the ‘delegates’, as they were known, were mostly from the northeastern white elite, especially since they were paid a very meagre stipend on top of expenses so that those from a less wealthy background could not afford to do it.
But it reminded me of the OSCE and other international staff who I knew in Bosnia when I was working there immediately after the war of the 1990s, people who were recruited as much for availability as for expertise, whose main role was really to demonstrate the continuing commitment of the international community to the country. It’s not such an awful thing. Going back to the First World War, my grandmother’s elder brother, Lyman C. Hibbard, volunteered not in Belgium but with the ambulances of the American Field Service in France, and was awarded the Croix du Guerre for it.
The author himself is the grandson of one of the American delegates and the Belgian industrialist‘s daughter who he fell in love with, but he doesn’t let that colour the story, which relies on the copious documentation in English. He has laudably put a lot of his source material online for wider use. However, I see only two books in French and two in Dutch out of eighty in the bibliography.
One other point that is not mentioned: the captains of Belgian industry who were able to marshal local resources as part of the effort had made most of their money from exploiting the Congo.
Anyway, it’s a short and digestible book about a quietly heroic moment of history, which is not well enough known.
A few months ago I was showing off the delights of Leuven a friend who has recently moved to Brussels, and challenged her to guess which American president has a square named after him in the city. If you don’t already know, I confidently predicted, you won’t get it in your first ten guesses. I was right. The story of how future president Herbert Hoover co-ordinated the delivery of food to occupied Belgium during the First World War is not well known outside this country, and indeed is a fading memory even here.
This book is a brief but detailed history of the effort an amazing triumph of non-governmental diplomacy and organisation, with food bought in the UK and distributed to the Belgians (and northern French) living under occupation. Hoover had to fight turf wars with other American do-gooders, and establish clear demarcation with the Belgian relief committee about how the distribution was to managed; but those issues pale into insignificance in comparison with the need to get the British and Germans to allow the effort to proceed in the first place despite being locked in vicious war.
The Germans come out as the bad guys, no matter how you look at it. When the Commission for Relief in Belgium complained to the military governor that German soldiers were mistreating their staff, he refused to believe them and sent one of his own men to observe the situation on the ground. The undercover German soldier was beaten up, arrested and jailed by his own comrades who refused to believe his story.
A small team of young Americans, mostly young men, supervised the relief operation on the ground. The recruitment process was basically any Rhodes scholar, or other upper-class white male American student in western Europe, who spoke decent French (as most well-educated Westerners did in those days). That obviously meant that the ‘delegates’, as they were known, were mostly from the northeastern white elite, especially since they were paid a very meagre stipend on top of expenses so that those from a less wealthy background could not afford to do it.
But it reminded me of the OSCE and other international staff who I knew in Bosnia when I was working there immediately after the war of the 1990s, people who were recruited as much for availability as for expertise, whose main role was really to demonstrate the continuing commitment of the international community to the country. It’s not such an awful thing. Going back to the First World War, my grandmother’s elder brother, Lyman C. Hibbard, volunteered not in Belgium but with the ambulances of the American Field Service in France, and was awarded the Croix du Guerre for it.
The author himself is the grandson of one of the American delegates and the Belgian industrialist‘s daughter who he fell in love with, but he doesn’t let that colour the story, which relies on the copious documentation in English. He has laudably put a lot of his source material online for wider use. However, I see only two books in French and two in Dutch out of eighty in the bibliography.
One other point that is not mentioned: the captains of Belgian industry who were able to marshal local resources as part of the effort had made most of their money from exploiting the Congo.
Anyway, it’s a short and digestible book about a quietly heroic moment of history, which is not well enough known.
January 13, 2026
Yanks behind the Lines is a rare achievement in historical writing, both deeply researched and genuinely gripping. Jeffrey B. Miller brings to light a humanitarian effort of enormous scale and moral importance that has largely faded from public memory, and he does so with clarity, narrative energy, and deep respect for the people involved.
What makes the book especially powerful is its human focus. While the scope of the operation is staggering, millions of lives saved, tons of supplies moved across hostile borders, the story never loses sight of individuals. The volunteers, the diplomats, the Belgian families, and the children being fed are rendered not as abstractions, but as people with fear, courage, and hope. That balance between scale and intimacy is what makes the book so emotionally resonant.
The portrayal of Herbert Hoover before his presidency is also striking. The book shows him not as a distant historical figure, but as a driven, complicated, and relentless organizer whose moral certainty collided with political realities. This complexity enriches the story and resists simplification.
Ultimately, Yanks behind the Lines feels like both a recovery of forgotten history and a reminder of what coordinated human compassion can achieve. It is a story about logistics, diplomacy, and courage, but above all, about responsibility in the face of suffering.
What makes the book especially powerful is its human focus. While the scope of the operation is staggering, millions of lives saved, tons of supplies moved across hostile borders, the story never loses sight of individuals. The volunteers, the diplomats, the Belgian families, and the children being fed are rendered not as abstractions, but as people with fear, courage, and hope. That balance between scale and intimacy is what makes the book so emotionally resonant.
The portrayal of Herbert Hoover before his presidency is also striking. The book shows him not as a distant historical figure, but as a driven, complicated, and relentless organizer whose moral certainty collided with political realities. This complexity enriches the story and resists simplification.
Ultimately, Yanks behind the Lines feels like both a recovery of forgotten history and a reminder of what coordinated human compassion can achieve. It is a story about logistics, diplomacy, and courage, but above all, about responsibility in the face of suffering.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews