When World War II came to France, three of her race drivers were excelling on the tracks. Robert Benoist had won the French, Spanish, Italian and British Grand Prix and as the only driver to do this in one year, he received the Legion of Honor from the French Government.
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<br>Then in 1937 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Benoist's friend Jean-Pierre Wimille had won the 24 Hours of LeMans partnered with Robert had placed second in the Vanderbilt Cup and had won both the Algerian Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix. Fellow racing driver Grover-Williams, using the alias W. Williams had placed first in the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix, and was a two-time winner of the French Grand Prix.
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<br>However, when the Nazis invaded and occupied France, auto racing was over for the duration. France, liked many other Nazi occupied European countries developed an underground resistance army to fight the Nazis in any way they could. The three racing drivers escaped to England. Grover-William joined the Royal Army Service Corps. But due to his fluency in both French and English, the British recruited Grover-William into the SOE. Benoist and Jean-Pierre Wimille also joined the SOE.
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<br>SOE was an acronym for the Special Operations Executive, an intelligence group that had been formed to aid Nazi resistance groups operating in the occupied countries of Europe. It was headquartered at 64 Baker Street in London. In the words of Sir Winston Churchill who was Prime Minister at that time, the SOE's mission was to "set Europe ablaze." It had a twofold task to train underground armies that would be ready to assist in the coming invasion and to hamper the Nazi war effort through effective sabotage operations.
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<br>All three men received extensive training in espionage operations and Grover-Williams was also trained as a demolition specialist. Upon completion of training, Grover-Williams, using the code name Vladmir, was assigned to set up a sabotage network that would be known as 'Chestnut' and was parachuted into occupied France on the morning of May 31, 1942. Benoist assisted Grover-Williams in carrying out the work of Chestnut and they were joined by Wimille. However, Chestnut was discovered by the Nazis and all three men were arrested. Benoist made a daring escape by jumping from the patrol car and hiding out until he could return to England. After an unsuccessful trip back to France, Benoist again returned to England but came back to France in March of 1944 and started to work on reviving Chestnut.
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<br>In June of 1944, the Nazi's struck again. This time it was Wimille who made the daring escape. He first dodged the rifles by sprinting between parked cars and then dived into a stream where he floated with only his nose above water until the Nazis departed. Robert Benoist was imprisoned in Buchenwald where he was executed in September of 1944. Grover-Williams was placed in solitary confinement at Sachsenhausen and supposedly faced a firing squad in March 1945. Wimille survived to continue racing. Their experiences
<br>formed the basis for Robert Ryan's novel, 'Early One Morning.'
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