Robert Benoist

Robert Marcel Charles Benoist (French pronunciation: [ʁɔbɛʁ bənwa]; 20 March 1895 – 11 September 1944) was a French Grand Prix motor racing driver. He won several Grand Prix racing events and the 24 Hours of Le Mans between 1924 and 1937.

During World War II, Benoist resisted the German occupation of France and worked as an agent in France for the clandestine British Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization. SOE's objectives were to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially those occupied by Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with French resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment. In 1943, Benoist was captured by the Germans in Paris, but escaped and fled to Britain. Returning to France, he led a sabotage campaign around Nantes, but he was captured again in June 1944 and executed.

Benoist was born in Auffargis, near Rambouillet, Île-de-France, France on 20 March 1895. He was the son of Jeanne and Gaston Benoist. His father was the gamekeeper of Baron Henri de Rothschild's estate. Benoist had an older brother named Maurice. During World War I, Robert Benoist served in the French army but soon became a fighter pilot in the French Air Force. Benoist married Paule Ajustron when he was 27 years old and the couple had a child, Jacqueline. Benoist also had a mistress, Huguette Stocker.

Looking for excitement in the post-war world, Benoist joined the de Marçay car company as a test driver. He then moved on to Salmson and was very successful in cyclecar races before being signed to drive for Delage in 1924. The next year, teamed with Albert Divo, he won the French Grand Prix in the race that claimed the life of Italian racing star Antonio Ascari.

In 1927, driving a Delage 15-S-8, he won the French, Spanish, Italian and British Grand Prix races, earning the season championship title for the French manufacturer.

When the Delage company dropped out of racing, Robert Benoist was without a job and was appointed manager of the Banville Garage in Paris. He did occasional races for the Bugatti team, finishing second in the 1928 San Sebastián Grand Prix in Spain.

The following year he teamed up with Attilio Marinoni to win the Spa 24 Hours race in Belgium, driving an Alfa Romeo. At the end of the season he retired until 1934, when he made a comeback with the Bugatti team. He was soon made head of the competition department and masterminded the company's Le Mans programme. In 1937 he partnered with Jean-Pierre Wimille to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Following that victory, Benoist retired from driving, but continued to run Bugatti's racing department.

France was defeated and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940. The United Kingdom, headed by Winston Churchill, created the clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) to contest German occupation of France and other countries by encouraging French resistance to Germany and providing the resistance with arms and supplies. On 29 May 1942, SOE agent William Grover-Williams, a former race car driver and rival of Benoist, parachuted into France. Grover-Williams' job was to create a network, called "Chestnut," to operate near Paris and assist the incipient French resistance. Beginning in mid-February 1943, Chestnut received from SOE headquarters six large parachute drops of weapons and other supplies for the French resistance. The arms and other supplies were stored at the Benoist chateau for future use.