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BENOIST CHARLES ROBERT MARCEL
Surname: Benoist
Name: Charles Robert Marcel
Place of birth: Rambouillet
Date of birth: 20/03/1895
Place of death: Buchenwald
Date of death: 11/09/1944
Automotive driver
His father Robert was the gamekeeper of Baron Rothschild. He Participates in the First War World as a foot soldier, then he joins the air force, where in 1915 he gets the pilot's license. Charles loves engines and after the war he starts racing, but are his machines his true passion. He began his career as a racing driver in 1924 for the "Delage", with which he won the Grand Prix of France. In 1929 he drives, paired with Attilio Marinoni, and wins the "24 hours of Spa" in Belgium. At the end of the season, leaves the races and becomes the director of the garage "Banville" getting the job of preparing one car for the "24 Hours of Le Mans". With the invasion of France by the Germans, Benoist, together with Jean Pierre Wimille and William Grover Williams, flees to London and enlisted in the Anglo-French secret service (SOE), wanted by Churchill.
In 1942 he was parachuted in France and comes into contact with the French resistance in order to organize a network of sabotage. In 1943 he was arrested in Paris but managed to escape and return to London. The year he returns to his country of origin for a new mission, which lasts from October '43 in February of '44 and that ends positively with his return to Britain. He returned to France again, but on 18 June 1944 he was arrested near Nantes and deported to Buchenwald, where he is hanged on 11th September 1944.
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