Well, first, a little g..le, just to get into spirit before moving on to the compliments: even if it means dropping a few sentences in German, you might as well do it correctly!!!
Twice the authors of “the gold of the Belgians try German” … to wallow in great widths. It smacks of the use of a poorly mastered web dictionary. Why haven’t you, Gentlemen (screenwriters-correctors-editors), taken care to check with German speakers, or at the very least with a Germanist!
Well, this little exasperation let go, let’s get back to our Teutons…
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In the debacle of history
We are in June 1940, at the time of the French debacle in the face of the blows of the Blitzkrieg, a period decidedly very popular with comic book authors.
But this time, to take an interest in a little-known episode of this turbulent period in European history: the epic of Belgian gold. Gold that the small kingdom of Belgium believed to have sheltered by entrusting it to the Bank of France. But the rout of the French army decided otherwise…
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And Polish gold as a bonus
The French gold therefore had to be evacuated in turn, a large part of which was finally stored near Dakar, along with 220 tonnes of Belgian ingots and 60 tonnes from the Polish reserve.
Enough to make Hitler salivate, in a hurry to be able to finance the raw materials necessary to wage the war. But also De Gaule, to finance his just-in-the-making liberation army, or even Churchill to finance his island’s resistance to the harassment of the stukas.
Faced with these three international robbers, the little King Leopold III has little latitude to watch over the financial future of his country, but tries all the same to do so in the shadows.
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Journey through savannah and desert
On the ground (in other words, Senegal cut off by the Vichy government), all this becomes an odyssey, which the Germans decide, eager to bring this treasure back to the Mediterranean to monopolize it. The sky is not sure, it will be done by land, and in particular by train, through savannah and desert.
But a small commando of four men, including two French and English officers, a Senegalese anti-colonialist militant and a thirsty mechanic, will try to intercept it.
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Know how to choose your side, and quickly!
A well-written story backed by the Great History… and the adventure is guaranteed!
This historical period lends itself to it all the more as the chaos is total and the unexpected can freely invite itself. The screenwriter judiciously exploits this field of possibilities where the characters are summoned to promptly choose their camp. But did they really do it?
If we have understood the motivations of the “great” of this world, those of the men in the field are more vague for the moment. Which allows you to pose multiple unknowns, and as many reasons to get caught up in the plot.
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Characters anchored in the decor
The black circle, with which the designer Stéphane Brangier outlines his characters along the lines of realism and caricature, gives them a presence, and even a very particular anchoring in the decor. So well established that we are reluctant to abandon them at the end of the first volume. But we say patience… gold as much as silence. So let’s wait!
Lysiane GANOUSSE
L’Or des Belges, T1/2, by Pierre Boisserie, Philippe Guillaume, and Stéphane Brangier, at Dargaud; 15€.
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