This account, based on original sources including diaries, memoirs, family records, secret diaries written during the war, vivid memories and official records, shows how the rich agricultural and industrial areas of northern France were invaded, occupied and exploited between the summer of 1914 and the Armistice in November 1918. Factories were stripped, household furniture and fittings requisitioned, food supplies taken, the population maltreated and malnourished and even taken to forced labor camps until Herbert Hoover set up his scheme of aid which kept the population alive during the war. This fascinating account describes how French civilians responded in familiar ways in the war.