The 1944 Europa Grand Prix was a racing tournament held by the German military in occupied Paris, France during World War II. Irish racecar driver-turned-French Resistance fighter Sean Devlin, posing as the German soldier Rolf Becker, won the grand prix, only to jump from his racecar as it crashed into the stands where the German high command in Paris sat. Rigged with explosives, the car killed General Karl Eckhardt, the head of the German military administration in France, and several other high-ranking Nazis.
Devlin had previously competed in the 1940 Saarbrucken Grand Prix on the eve of World War II, only for SS officer Kurt Dierker to rig the race by shooting out Devlin's tires near the end. This incident, together with Dierker's murder of Devlin's friend Jules Rousseau on the suspicion that he was a British spy, caused Devlin to swear vengeance against Dierker and join the French Resistance after the Germans occupied France. After failing to kill Dierker at the Le Havre Citadel in 1941, Devlin finally had another chance in 1944, as Dierker was projected to compete in the Nazis' Europa Grand Prix with the promised prize of an Iron Cross. Devlin stole back the Aurora he had used to compete in 1940, and his mentor Vittore Morini rigged it with 80 kilograms of explosives as SOE agent Skylar St. Claire provided him with fake German credentials. Devlin proceeded to win the race, aim his car at the stands where the high command stood, and dive out as it crashed into the stands. Though Eckhardt and several other officers were killed, Dierker survived, and he was able to launch a counteroffensive against the rebels.