How about getting into a tank during a battle? The military series Machines de guerre published by Delcourt makes the very original choice not to highlight a person or a war but a tank. In The Kursk Star you discover the story of the best Soviet tank.
The story of a tank
The screenwriter Jean-Pierre Pécau specializes in historical comics, especially the technical aspect. After aviation in Indochina, he details the evolution of tanks in The Star of Kursk. In the midst of the many comics on the Second World War, Jean-Pierre Pécau has indeed declined this original idea in four volumes and this volume is the second on a Soviet tank. Illustrators Senad Mavric and Filip Andronik take care of the entire series and the precision of each box is perfectly suited to this story. They are supported in their desire for realism by the colorist Jean Verney. This desire to stick as closely as possible to historical reality is found in the technical booklet and the very complete biography at the end of the volume. 
Through this technical means, the reader penetrates the complexity of the war and understands the Soviet failures at the beginning of the confrontation against Germany. Pécau did not glorify the Soviet army. More than the faulty hardware, it is the tactics that are the problem. The narrow-minded staff persisted in 1941 in attacking with tanks in single file instead of taking advantage of the maneuverability of T34 to be in line. The army does not decide alone but must deal with the power of the NKVD, the secret services. The scenario knows how to convey complex ideas by explaining, for example, why the walls are inclined. We also discover the other side of the war when Aleksandra, the heroine, is appointed technical advisor in Tankograd, the city where the tanks are built. She will help design the T34. It is initially unknown, but by a stroke of brilliance,8 it demonstrates its capabilities: a convoy of experimental T34s will travel 800 km to go to a parade in Moscow. Indeed, it has demonstrated that it is capable of carrying out in-depth attacks.
The story of a soldier
Kursk's Star is also the biography of a woman in the Red Army. It was not so unusual to have female soldiers in the Soviet Union but the narrative is based on the real and unique life of Aleksandra Samusenko, the first woman to fly a T34. She was also recognized as a heroine of the Soviet Union by destroying three German tanks at the Battle of Kursk. We discover that this woman is a veteran because she has been fighting since the Spanish Civil War where she was a volunteer in the International Legions. This long experience on the front made him understand the defects of the first tanks used in 1941, the T-30. Indeed, its caterpillars are not wide enough to climb hills in the snow. She wants to do more and get into tank school but there has never been a woman to take this training. 
The Kursk star also shows that this woman's life is sometimes just one word. Frankly, she must measure what she says because, as a volunteer during the Spanish Civil War, she is suspicious for the NKVD. Indeed, most of these veterans were sidelined at the beginning of the Second World War. As a woman, she must prove herself to men. She meets Stalin who, convinced of the interest of this tank, launches mass construction. Admitted to the school of tanks, she understands that the truth can be dangerous as for a teacher executed for Trotskyism. Through L'étoile de Koursk, Jean-Pierre Pécau, Senad Mavric and Filip Andronik tell the story of a tank with clarity. Indeed, the Russian T34 tank was often analyzed as the best tank of the Second World War. The authors also show that women had a role in this war. You can find our chronicle on Indochina by the same screenwriter on this link.
