Sean Devlin was an Irish Grand Prix motor racing driver and French Resistance operative during World War II. Devlin was motivated to fight against the Nazi occupation of Paris following the Nazis' murder of his best friend, Jules Rousseau, in 1940, and he would help to sabotage the German forces in the city and build up the Resistance's strength in Paris.
Biography[]
Devlin and St. Claire in 1940.
Sean Devlin was born on a farm in Ireland, and he had a troubled childhood. Devlin, a violent child, made several enemies, and his father was killed in a deliberate house fire set by Sean's rivals. He worked as a racecar mechanic before becoming a racer himself. Devlin was known to be a hard drinker and womanizer, as well as a man who often made rash and impulsive decisions. Under the auspices of Italian business entrepreneur and mechanic Vittore Morini, and at the side of fellow mechanic Jules Rousseau, he became a regular among the racing groups of Paris, France, where he made a life for himself. He would start an on-again, off-again relationship with fellow racer Skylar St. Claire (whom he met in Monaco), while he also harbored feelings for Jules' sister, Veronique, who was hostile towards men due to her upbringing in a brothel.
1940 Saarbrucken Grand Prix[]
In May 1940, Devlin, Morini, and the Rousseau siblings drove from the Morini farm in Lorraine to the German border town of Saarbrucken to take part in the 1940 Saarbrucken Grand Prix. The night of their arrival in Saarbrucken, Devlin and Jules got into a bar fight with German racer Kurt Dierker and several other Team Doppelsieg racers after Dierker flirted with Veronique. The two of them were then able to escape with the help of St. Claire, with Devlin evading the Gestapo before driving back to the hotel. There, he made love with St. Claire, and he woke up the next morning alone.
During the Grand Prix, Devlin managed to make it to first place, but, halfway through the race, the humiliated Dierker shot out Devlin's tires with a Luger pistol, causing Devlin to be cheated out of winning. An infuriated Devlin conspired with Jules Rousseau to tail Dierker as he drove his prized car out of the racetrack, planning on destroying it. They infiltrated Doppelsieg Motor Works, and they drove the car off of a cliff. As they prepared to head back to France as happy men, they were accosted by the Gestapo and taken into the factory for interrogation. Dierker revealed himself to be an SS colonel, and he accused Devlin of being a British agent. When Devlin continued to deny this and insulted Dierker, Dierker shot Rousseau several times, killing him. Devlin broke Dierker's nose, but he was knocked out and sent to a cell. Later that night, he succeeded in killing his guard, retrieving some weapons, and single-handedly shooting his way out of the Doppelsieg factory. He then escaped in a German military vehicle, driving across the border and into France. However, he found that the Battle of France had started, and saw German forces set fire to French towns as they fought for control of them. He fled to Morini's farm, where he rescued Morini and Veronique from the Gestapo, and he informed the latter of her brother's death. The three of them, knowing that more Gestapo would arrive to search for Devlin, decided to go to Paris, and they hid at the La Belle du Nuit brothel in Montmartre. Just a month later, German forces occupied Paris.
La Resistance[]
Devlin in Montmartre
Devlin stayed at the La Belle du Nuit, using a hidden backroom as his hideaway. One night, he met Resistance fighter Luc Gaudin at the bar, and Gaudin persuaded a reluctant Devlin to join the struggle against the Nazis. Devlin assisted Gaudin with blowing up a German fuel depot in Montmartre, inspiring the people of Montmartre to stand up to the Germans. Devlin would soon become immersed in resistance activities, and he helped to rescue Morini from the German slaughterhouse prison at La Villette before the British Royal Air Force bombed the garrison. Soon, the Resistance came to use both La Villette and La Belle du Nuit as strongholds, and Devlin came to work with resistance members such as Father Denis and Le Crochet to undermine the Nazis' control over Paris.
Later, he would be contacted by St. Claire, who invited him to have a drink with her while she was staying at a hotel in Le Havre. When the two met, St. Claire "slipped him a mickey", making him pass out from the spiked drink. When he woke up, he was met by SOE agent Bishop, who told him that it was time for him to consider a new line of work. It was revealed that St. Claire had been working for the SOE the entire time, and that she was hired to blackmail Devlin into working with the SOE. Devlin assisted her in liberating the Pere Lachaise Cemetery and stealing a box of treasure from its large mausoleum, and, during his trips to and from Le Havre, he engaged in sabotage campaigns in Champagne, Picardy, and the area in and around Le Havre.
Devlin later made contact with Resistance figures such as Margot Bonnaire, Duval Mingo, and Felix Kwong, using these connections to liberate several more districts of Paris. Through Santos, he succeeded in securing false travel papers so that he could access the left bank of the Seine and liberate Montparnasse, Chinatown, and other new districts of Paris. Devlin made a reputation for himself, leading to Dierker being appointed head of security in Paris and calling in SS terror squads to hunt down Devlin and his allies.
Devlin and St. Claire were soon tasked with rescuing German scientist Klaus Kessler, who sought to defect to the British and prevent the Nazis from developing atomic weapons; the Germans used the Doppelsieg factory as a front for their program. Sean then rescued his captive daughter Maria Kessler from her Gestapo captors and took her to the resistance's slaughterhouse headquarters, allowing for Dr. Kessler to work with the Allies without reprisal. However, the slaughterhouse was attacked by the Nazis, forcing the Resistance to flee to the catacombs. During the slaughterhouse raid, Veronique was captured and prepped for execution in Notre Dame, which prompted Devlin to rescue her himself.
Gaudin came up with a plan to topple the Nazi leadership, who were set to host the 1941 Europa Grand Prix in Paris, by having a driver blow them up with a rigged car. While Devlin successfully won the race and wiped out most of the leadership, Dierker survived and took control of the remaining Nazis. In retaliation, the Nazis destroyed La Belle du Nuit, killing Veronique's parents as well as Morini. In his dying words, Morini revealed that Santos had betrayed the Resistance to the Germans, and Devlin deduced that the Resistance's remaining bases would soon be attacked. Sean raced to the catacombs to warn the rest of the Resistance, but he found that the terror squads had beat him there. Devlin helped the Resistance in fighting back the terror squads, and he killed Santos during the shootout. However, Gaudin was trapped under a pile of boulders, forcing Rousseau to execute him to prevent him from talking to the Germans while under interrogation.
Devlin, Rousseau, and St. Claire discovered that the Kesslers had been recaptured by the Germans, so they teamed up to raid the Doppelsieg factory in Saarbrucken and rescue the Kesslers. Once Dr. Kessler was rescued, he and Sean went on to dismantle the weapons and set the factory to explode before they escaped, causing an overreaction of the cyclotron to destroy Doppelsieg. With the factory destroyed and the Kesslers rescued, Devlin and Rousseau returned to Paris, where the people were rising up against the Nazi power. Devlin discovered that Dierker had withdrawn to the Eiffel Tower, from which he was to be evacuated to Germany, and Devlin told Rousseau that she was now the leader of the Resistance; they shared their first kiss before Devlin entered the tower. He did not face any resistance, instead finding several hanging or drunken corpses of German soldiers, all of whom were executed by Dierker for failing him. Sean finally confronted Dierker at the top of the tower, where Dierker realized that both of them would go to hell. Devlin proceeded to pull out an executioner's pistol and shoot Dierker in the head, causing him to fall to his death on the pavement far below the tower. With Dierker dead, Devlin told Rousseau that their fight had just begun, and they continude their war with the Nazis.
Devlin continued to work with the SOE, destroying the German chemical plant at Bercy for them. He also continued to target German bridges, tanks, armored vehicles, generals, radio installations, searchlights, occupation towers, and other targets across France, and he continued to do so until the Allied Powers liberated the country in 1944.
Later life[]
An older Devlin
After the war, Sean Devlin moved to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California. Devlin continued his line of work as a mechanic, and he would become a mentor to mechanics such as his African-American personal mechanic Charles Williams and ranch owner Frankie Dean. His peers spoke of how he hated dictators, politicians, wars, socialists, fascists, Nazis, and, especially, authority. Devlin was never famous, but he influenced a lot of people, and he left a lasting impression on them as a lover, fighter, and, as Dean described him, "a fucking asshole."
Gallery[]
